Time Child: Preservation
by DanniFielding
Summary: Sequel to Time Child: Recovery. Danielle Fielding certainly never saw herself housing the biggest monster in the universe while her husband and his newest companion travelled the universe, nor back at university feeling like she'd gone full circle. But something lurks out in the stars that might just save her from her past, should she listen? 12/OC.
1. Prologue

_Hello! And welcome to Time Child: Preservation, the **7th** story in the Time Child saga. If you're new around here, you may want to take a look at the previous 6 stories, all of which are on my profile here._

_This story is rated M for bad language, some sensitive subjects and mild sexual - definitely not explicit - scenes. The explicit stuff tends to go into the Outtakes story for the saga, should you be interested in that sort of thing._

_I also have a Tumblr, which is **DanniFielding** and definitely somewhere you should come hang out!_

_Oh, and the cover is by my good friend amaurapond, also on Tumblr. Thank you, sweetie!_

_Enjoy :D_

_~0~0~0~_

The sky was pink with the start of dusk, shining off the water that surrounded the dark stoned mountains. It was peaceful, quiet, a perfect place for contemplation of life and morality. Side by side, following a man in regal green and blue and green robes, the Doctor and Danni made their way towards a platform built on a cliff edge, in front of an ancient castle. Stone pillars with decorations led the way.

"This technology is precisely calibrated. As you can see, it will stop both hearts, all three brain stems, and deliver a cellular shock wave that will permanently disable regenerative ability," the man explained as they came to a stop.

"I know how it works," the Doctor replied as they took their place at its side. In the middle was a single, square cushion but otherwise the platform was empty.

Danni raised her hand. "I have a question," she declared before looking up at the Doctor. "Why do they get to kill her and I don't?"

He sighed heavily, the sound of a man who'd had the same argument over and over. "Because it is their job, as executioners, to carry out _executions_. What you want to commit is murder."

She crossed her arms. "I don't see the difference," she replied bluntly and stubbornly. "They're just onlookers. _I'm_ the one she's wronged. Why can't I carry out the punishment?"

"Because it's not a punishment if you enjoy it," he retorted. "We're trying to be _better_ than her, remember?"

Danni brushed a loose piece of her brown hair behind her ear before crossing her arms once again. "I am better than her," she stated. "That's why I should be killing her. There's no need to do it here. I could stop her before she regenerates. Jack helped me with my aim, remember?"

"Yes, I remember," he muttered under his breath. He'd not been a fan of Jack spending the day training her up to be a better shot with her gun. It had been a long day trying to get her back in from the shooting range the immortal man had set up. "You're not killing her because killing people is wrong," he explained simply. "Now just stand back and let them do their job."

"Fine," Danni grumbled, but she fell silent. She knew killing people was wrong – of course she did, she wasn't stupid – but this wasn't just some ordinary case. This was the woman who had beaten and abused her. Who'd almost broke her mind and her sanity. She wasn't doing it just for kicks, but it felt wrong to let someone carry out what she felt was _her_ revenge for her.

"Put it this way," the Doctor said. "Either way she ends up dead."

Danni nodded, reluctantly agreeing. Ultimately it didn't matter who carried out the justice, the universe would not be a safer place until she was dead. And, finally, that was about to happen.

"Following termination, the body will be placed in a Quantum Fold chamber," the executioner continued, "under constant guard for no less than a thousand years. In case of, shall we say, relapses. Life can be a cunning enemy."

"And you still want them to do it over me?" Danni stated. The Doctor sent her a sharp look. "Fine, fine."

"An additional stipulation of the Fatality Index is that the sentence must be carried out by another Time Lord."

Danni looked sharply up at her husband. "Hang on, you didn't mention that!" she protested. She turned back to the executioner. "I'm a Time Lord," she told him. "Why him and not me?"

"The Fatality Index requires a being with the purest of blood," he explained. "You, unfortunately, do not fit the role."

Danni stared, positively offended. "But I'm the one she wronged!" she exclaimed. "I'm the one she kept captive! I want my justice!" The Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder, calming her down before she launched into a full rant. "How is this fair?"

"It is not fair, it is inevitable," the executioner replied.

The door in the wall behind them opened and out stepped Missy, posing as if she had a hundred cameras on them. "Danielle," she greeted. "Doctor. I didn't expect you." She stepped out. "I thought you'd retired. Family bliss on Darillium. That's the word among the Daleks." She stopped in front of them, clasping her hands behind her back. "What happened?"

Danni growled, hands clenching as she moved forward to wring Missy's neck with her bare hands. The Doctor held her back, pushing her slightly behind him to create a barrier between the two.

"Oh, I see," Missy said, casting her eyes downwards. "My condolences."

"You sick, twisted…" Danni started to snarl as the Doctor moved them out of the way, giving Missy a clear pathway to the executioner's block. He turned, standing in front of his wife, using the height difference to block her view of the other Time Lady. He held onto both her arms, making sure her attention was on him.

"I'm doing this, not you, because feeding this anger will not end well," he explained quietly. "It won't sate it. It will leave you feeling hollow and unfulfilled. It will leave you craving more and more until nothing in the universe can help you. Let _me_ help you."

"But she…" Danni started in protest.

"I know what she did," he interrupted. "I was on the other end of it, remember?"

Danni pressed her lips together and he relaxed slightly, seeing the thoughts turning in her brain. Bringing it back to him was the only thing that could ever, really, calm her down. She hated the thought that while she had been trapped and terrified, he'd been alone and defeated. She never wanted him to feel anything close to that again. But then her features softened as she realised what he wasn't taking off her, but taking _on_ for her instead.

"Fine," she agreed softly. He smiled, placing a kiss on her forehead as Missy scoffed behind them. He left her to the side of the block before moving to his position.

"The prisoner will kneel," the executioner commanded. Missy didn't move straight away and instead was encouraged to kneel on the cushion by two other men in robes. From the water around them rose a large, metal cube – the Quantum Fold Chamber.

"The Quantum Fold chamber is prepared," the man declared. "The sentence will be carried out." He looked to the Doctor. "Executioner?"

The Doctor gave her arms one last squeeze for reassurance before he walked over to the lever conveniently in front of where Missy was knelt. She stared up at him, suddenly looking rather afraid.

"Please, I'll do anything. Just let me live," she begged quietly. He shook his head.

Danni straightened slightly, hearts racing. Suddenly, watching him about to kill _anyone_ gave her a much better understanding as to why he never wanted her to do the same. She worried her hands together, wanting to pull him away and tell him he was right, that it wasn't good for anyone, that he was better than that and so was she and that she was just so _sorry_.

Then she frowned as a robed figure headed towards the execution area, their head bowed and face hidden. "Um, Doctor," she called out, unsure of whether or not she should be talking. He looked exasperated, which was understandable considering how much she had been complaining, but she nodded towards the figure. "We have company." He looked over his shoulder, as surprised at the figure as she was.

"Have you requested a priest?" the executioner asked.

The priest motioned at him and he shrugged. "Apparently, I have," the Doctor replied.

"I shall seek consultation," the executioner declared pompously. He looked at the device on his wrist, pressing a few buttons and twisting the face as he looked for the answer. "There are 412 precedents in the Fatality Index," he explained. "Divine intervention, therefore, is permitted for a maximum of five minutes. The executioner may now discuss his immortal soul and any peril thereunto."

The Doctor's hand fell off the lever, almost relieved. "I'm allowed to take the wife, yes?" he asked, motioning Danni over before he could get an answer. She was quick to his side, very curious about what was happening. He bent down low, keeping his voice quiet. "After all, you are utterly divine."

She giggled. "Theta, that was awful," she chided lightly. "It's a solemn place. No flirting."

They stopped in front of the hooded figure. "Greetings, sinners," they said in a low voice. "Only in darkness are we revealed."

"I never sent for you," the Doctor declared. "Neither of us sent for you."

They held a book in front of them, open on ancient, yellowed pages. "Goodness is not goodness that seeks advantage." Danni pulled a bit of a face, looking up at her husband, who didn't seem to have a clue was going on either. "Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit without hope, without witness, without reward. Virtue is only virtue in extremis. This is what she believes. And this is the reason, above all, that I love her. My friend. My daughter. My Danni-Girl."

He closed the book, showing off the TARDIS cover on the other side. Her hearts skipped a painful beat and tears gathered in her eyes. He pulled the hood down and she smiled brightly. "Your mother wouldn't approve," he said in his normal voice.

"Nardole," she said happily.

He shot a pointed look at the Doctor. "Your mother-in-law wouldn't, either."

"How the hell did you get here?" the Doctor asked grumpily. He didn't appreciate being told off from beyond the grave. Or, rather, beyond a computer in a Library.

"Followed you from Darillium," Nardole explained casually. "On the explicit orders of her late mother, River Song." He turned his attention back to Danni. "Warning; I have full permission to kick your arse."

"And I don't doubt, for a second, that you would either," Danni told him. "We can't let her live, Nardole. You know what she's done."

"Do you really think this is the way to go about it?" he asked patiently in reply. Danni looked over her shoulder at Missy, then back to him.

"No, I don't," she admitted, surprising the Doctor. "I don't want him to have to do it, but I can't do it either."

"Then, perhaps, you should be looking for another way," he said. "Your mother believed you to be a good person, Danni."

"Everyone keeps telling me that," she replied. "I still don't know if I feel it."

The Doctor listened to his wife and her friend talk, never interrupting, never correcting what she was saying. He knew, much like himself, her darkness was starting to battle with her light. He also knew that, when it came down to the wire, time and again she showed herself bigger and brighter than he could ever be. He just wanted her to see what the universe saw. He wanted her to know that, no matter what she might have done, that she still could be the person she wanted to be.

"I regret that this consultation is over," the executioner called over, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"I regret it, too," Missy commented from her place on in the middle of the block.

"The sentence must now be carried out."

"Well, take a few more minutes if you like," she stated. "Knock yourself out. Actually do- do that. Knock yourself right out."

Danni's lip pulled up in derision. "Oh, do shut up," she snapped. "You brought this all on yourself."

"Don't say that, Danielle," Missy said. "You used to love me, once."

"You used to be redeemable, _once_," Danni snapped back. "There's no going back now, Koschei. There's no redemption for either of us now."

The Doctor blinked as, much like all of his ideas, the solution to all of his problems hit him like a lightning bolt straight to the brain. He may have come to regret his decision eventually, he may have not, but as he walked back to his place as executioner for his childhood friend, his resolve was strong.

Missy looked up at him, tears in her eyes. "I am your friend," she whimpered.

He shook his head. "Makes no difference."

"I know it doesn't," she quickly agreed. "I know I'm going to die. I have to say it, the truth. Without hope. Without witness. Without reward." She sobbed lightly. "I _am_ your friend. And I am so, so _sorry_. For what I've done to you. What I did to Danielle. I am _sorry_."

And, with that statement, the Doctor pulled the lever, sending energy coursing through Missy's body, and setting them off onto a brand-new path.


	2. The Beginning

Bill Potts considered herself to be rather out of the ordinary. Then again, she considered everyone to be out of the ordinary, so actually it made her kind of ordinary. Maybe she considered herself to be rather ordinary. She wasn't sure.

Bill Potts also considered herself to be a rather out of the ordinary student. That was because, actually, she wasn't a student at all. She just worked in the canteen as the chip lady, which had turned out to be the best job she'd ever had. The students were always nice because she was one of the bearers of food, and if a member of staff was eating in the canteen they just tended to be in a world of their own. No one shouted, or called for her manager, and university life tended to be the most tolerant, so she could be a bit of a perv and not one woman had batted an eyelid.

What wasn't very ordinary about her, though, was how she snuck into one particular professor's lectures every day just to hear him speak despite not being a student at all. Everyone did it, so you had to get there early because once the seats were all full the door to the lecture hall was closed and there was nothing more disappointing than that door slamming right in your face. At least there tended to be a lot of other disappointed souls to share condolences with. She'd managed to get a couple of phone numbers that way.

But when she managed to get a seat, she never took it for granted. She never understood what the Doctor was going on about, but then again, she wasn't sure that his students really knew. He didn't have a subject to teach. It was supposed to be physics, she had heard once, but she had heard him talk about everything from poetry, to fine art, to the farthest stretches of the universe. She wasn't sure how anyone could pass that degree, but he was quite famous for never losing a student to failure. She just knew that she could listen to him for hours and never get bored.

For almost an hour she didn't move, no one ever did when the Doctor was talking. He had a whole stage to himself and he seemed to own it with ease as he stood in the middle, looking out at all the impressionable faces in front of him.

"Words, sounds, painted pictures on papers long since discarded," he said to his raptured crowd. "So much power behind simple phrases all brought to life in ways never imagined. A pure grief of a father who had lost his son, his sense of self brought out so much beauty instead of despair, hope and joy instead of loss and sorrow. William Shakespeare was genius beyond the measure of books, he was a hope to generations with the power over even the vastest of beings, inspiring love and romance to everyone his words touch, even if they never realise."

With a little dip of his head he was done, and Bill realised that instead of talking physics, he'd spent an entire hour talking about William Shakespeare. She wasn't sure if she'd taken any of it in, but it didn't matter because like everyone else, all she could do was sit and listen to him. It was astounding and it took a moment for the students to realise he was finished and start to tidy up.

She was sure she was the only one who saw his eyes dart around the room until his gaze fell on a woman, roughly her age if only a year older, sat on the other side of the lecture hall. She wasn't moving, instead she had her chin propped up on both of her hands. When their gazes met, he winked at her and she smiled softly in return. A grin spread on his face and he turned to clean his desk up. The woman didn't move until almost everyone had left, picking up her small messenger bag and left, jogging slightly to catch up to the crowd but walking on her own, pulling out her phone.

No one else seemed to notice the little moment between the two. Or, if they did, no one cared.

What was that about?

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor had one of the older office's in the university. It had been around a very long time, and a lot of it had been chopped and changed over the years, but some of the original buildings still stood and his was in there. Bill had only been in the building a couple of times, and didn't quite understand why she had been summoned, or why she was being led to the office by a man who – although she couldn't work out why – was squeaking like he needed an oil change.

She didn't say anything, though. She didn't want to judge, but were there people out there that needed oil changes, like cars?

He let her into the room and silently motioned to the wooden chair behind the old wooden desk, inside the old wooden room that looked like it could also have been a library. There were strange pens on the desk, with photos of two young women; one with red hair and one with blonde. They must have been his granddaughters.

The strangest thing about the room, though, was the blue police box in the corner. It had an 'out of order' sign on it, which made her wonder what was on the inside. She didn't really know what a police box was. Was it a kind of phone box? Did that mean that it was a direct line to the police? Wasn't that what 999 was for?

She sat back down at the desk just as the clock chimed the hour. She had no idea where the Doctor was, nor how long she was going to wait, and as she was naturally curious, she started being a bit nosy. She was just reaching for one of his strange pens when the sound of an electric guitar scared the living daylights out of her. For the briefest of moments, she thought it was an alarm going off, but then as the song continued and she recognised it to be Beethoven, she realised that someone was playing it in the room off the office.

She held her hand to her mouth and cleared her throat pointedly. The guitar screeched off and the Doctor appeared at the door a moment later. "Potts?"

"Yeah," she confirmed with a smile. He stepped out with an old vinyl record in hand. He closed the door behind him, making sure she couldn't see in.

"Bill Potts?" he clarified and she nodded.

"You wanted to see me?"

He walked over to a corner behind his desk, placing the record down on a pile of them before he began to sort through them. "Er, you're not a student at this university."

"Nah, I work in the canteen."

"Yeah, but you come to my lectures," he pointed out and she started, panicked slightly that she had been caught doing something she shouldn't. After all, university was expensive. Did it count as stealing?

"No, I don't," she tried to dismiss. "I never do that."

He pointed at her with a record. "I've seen you."

She grimaced slightly. "Love your lectures. They're totally awesome."

He turned back to the sorting. "Why'd you come to my lectures when you're not a student?"

Bill didn't have an answer for that. The first one had been because she was curious. She'd heard a lot of students talk about this mysterious Doctor and then, suddenly, she'd been to a term's worth of lectures for no other reason than she wanted to. So, she just opened her mouth and said the first thing that came to her. "Okay, so my first day here, in the canteen, I was on chips. There was this girl. Student. Beautiful. Like a model, only with talking and thinking. She looked at you and you perved. Every time, automatic, like physics. Eye contact, perversion. So I gave her extra chips. Every time, extra chips. Like a reward for all the perversion. Every day, got myself on chips, rewarded her. Then finally, finally, she looked at me, like she'd noticed, actually noticed, all the extra chips. Do you know what I realised? She was fat. I'd fatted her. But that's life, innit? Beauty or chips. I like chips. So did she. So that's okay." She chuckled at the end and the Doctor turned around, walking over to her but standing on his side of the desk, looking over her.

"And how does that in any way explain why you keep coming to my lectures?"

"Yeah, it doesn't really, does it?" she replied with a little shrug. "I was hoping something would develop." She looked over at the corner, at the blue box, her mind already trying to jump onto something that finding an answer that would satisfy him. "What's that? A police telephone box?"

The Doctor looked over at it and smiled. It was the same smile he shot the brown-haired woman in his lectures. "Yeah."

"Did you build it from a kit?"

He looked at her, baffled. "No, it came like that," he replied, almost offended.

"Then how did you get it in here?" Bill replied, because it didn't make any sense. "The door's too small and so are the windows."

"I had the window and a part of the wall taken out and it was lifted in."

"What, with a crane?"

"Yeah," the Doctor drawled, like he wasn't too sure himself. "With a crane. It's heavier than it looks." He sat down in his chair. "Why do you keep coming to my lectures?" he asked, sounding a little exasperated with how she was dodging his question, so she gave him the only answer she had.

"Because I like them. Everybody likes them. They're amazing," she told him. "Why me?"

"Why you what?"

"Well, plenty of people come to your lectures that aren't supposed to," she explained. "Why pick on me?"

"Well, I noticed you," he offered.

"Yeah, but why?"

She was so full of questions and the Doctor couldn't help but like it. So many people wouldn't question anything, but maybe that was because she had so many to ask that she'd taken up the quota for everyone else. He glanced at the two pictures on his desk, his wife smiling back at him from different time periods. "Well, most people when don' t understand something, they frown," he replied softly. "You smile."

She smiled, then seemed to notice that she was doing it. She leant forward in her chair. "I'll tell you what I don't understand. You've been lecturing here for a long time," she said. "Like, fifty years, some people say. Nabeela in the office says over seventy."

He smirked to himself. "Yeah, and you're thinking, 'Well, he doesn't look old enough'."

"No," she replied bluntly and he deflated slightly. He didn't look old enough, did he? "I'm wondering what you're supposed to be lecturing on. It's like the university let you do whatever you like. One time, you were going to give a lecture on quantum physics. You talked about poetry."

"Poetry, physics, same thing," he replied with a shrug.

"How is it the same?" she countered.

"Because of the rhymes," he replied. "What are—"

"Then there's that girl," she continued before he could ask her his follow-up question. He brows furrowed.

"Girl?" he repeated.

"Yeah, the brown haired one," Bill replied. "I've asked about her and no one seems to really know who she is. No one even knew her name."

He shifted slightly. "What about her?" he asked, trying to sound like he was curious and not concerned.

"Well, after every lecture, you look at her and smile," she replied. "And she smiles back. She doesn't put her hand up, you don't call on her to answer questions, but you always look at her like… like…" She clicked her fingers and pointed at him. "Like you're looking for her approval. Like- Like she's evaluating you or sommat!"

The Doctor blinked, wondering how someone could be so close to the right answer and yet so _spectacularly_ wrong. "No, it isn't," he insisted.

"Yeah, that's it," Bill continued, like he hadn't tried to correct her. "Is she like the university version of OFSTED? I remember them from school, they used to come in and watch the teachers, make sure they were teaching properly. Is she there to see if you stay on subject?" She pulled a face. "You must be getting low marks if she is."

"That's not…" the Doctor stuttered out. "She's not…" He shook his head. He hadn't wanted to get off track, but she'd already pulled him in two different directions since she'd been in his office. "She's just a student," he dismissed. "What are you doing at this university?"

She shrugged, answering honestly. "I always wanted to come here."

"Yeah, to serve chips?" he countered, which got her back up slightly. She didn't like the way he said it, as if she was wasting her time, as if it was beneath her, beneath him.

"So anyway, am I nearly done?" she challenged.

"Do you want to be?"

Yes, she very much did. She stood up. "See ya."

"You ever get less than a first, then it's over."

She paused at the door, even more confused. "You what?"

He'd picked up some papers, looking at them as if he was comparing them and not talking nonsense. "A first. Every time, or I stop immediately."

"Stop what?"

"Being your personal tutor." He stopped, looking up at her with a big grin and she smiled through her confusion.

"But I'm not a student. I'm not part of the university. I never even applied."

He got up and rushed to her side excitedly. "We'll sort all that out later," he dismissed.

"You kinda have to sort that out earlier."

He still didn't seem too concerned, waving it away with his hands. "Leave it with me," he told her. "I'm assuming that it's a yes."

So many thoughts went through Bill's mind, like how it had to be an elaborate joke and she was just missing the punchline, or that she was supposed to turn him down to prove she was a good worker, or something. There _had_ to be something that she was missing because stuff like that, like being offered to be tutored by the best professor at her favourite university without applying or _paying_, just didn't happen in real life.

But she found herself nodding, agreeing completely. "Yes."

"I'll see you at 6pm every weekday," he instructed. "I don't care who's dying, never, ever be late. I'm very particular about time."

She didn't know what to say, she wasn't even sure if she should thank him, so she turned and walked out, completely stunned. Then a question came to mind, so she turned to him. "Oh, er. People just call you the Doctor? What do I call you?"

He grinned. "The Doctor."

"But Doctor's not a name. I can't just call you Doctor. Doctor what?"

He _never_ tired of hearing that. Or, rather, any variation of the traditional 'Doctor Who'. He loved the mystery and it made for a great story. And, as it turned out, a great television show.

"The Doctor," he repeated, clarifying nothing as he ushered her out. "6pm, starting Monday, do _not_ be late."

The moment the door shut behind her he rubbed his hands together in glee. He'd seen Bill in class, but he'd not seen her see his wife, which made his decision all the more worthwhile. He could keep an eye on her and make sure that she didn't investigate that train of thought too much, didn't dig too deep, whilst keeping his brain working. Being a teacher to a large group of students who had set ideas of what they needed to learn in mind was becoming a little tedious. She was going to be something new to get his teeth into, as it were.

Plus, he'd never been able to resist teaching someone who smiled at any new knowledge, even if they'd never understood it.

He glanced at the TARDIS. He'd hoped that he'd managed to squash her curiosity about the box as well, and eventually she would blend into the background like everything else in the office. But, first, he had something to do inside of her. He had some news he'd have to break, and he was _pretty_ sure how it would go down.

Ignoring the 'Out of Order' sign – a stroke of genius on his part – he headed inside to find his wife, his Danielle. When she wasn't in class she tended to study in the console room and that was where she was. She had set up a desk at the other end of the room so she could be surrounded by the books that lined the upper floor. She also had an armchair that she liked to sit in when she was reading, which was what she was doing when he skipped into the TARDIS.

She smiled immediately at the sight of him, and that was his _favourite_ smile.

Immediately, though, it fell away to a smile of confusion. "What's got you so happy?" she asked him.

The smile of confusion, the one that appeared when he was happy but she didn't know why, was also up there with the smile at just seeing him. The one that said she was happy that he was happy, but she couldn't place where the emotion came from. Still not his favourite, but one of them.

"Do you remember Bill, from my lectures?" he asked her as he made his way to her. She nodded, closing her book.

"The one who wasn't supposed to be there?" she asked. He nodded. "I told you; a lot of people go who aren't supposed to be there. I don't know why you're so fixated on her."

"Well, it turns out, she works in the canteen," he explained anyway. "On chips. She likes fattening up young women."

"I'm… glad?" Danni offered, still baffled.

"Well, I've just had a talk with her and, well, I'm going to tutor her," he declared. Automatically the happiness she displayed fell away to exasperation.

"Theta!"

He held his hands up in defence. "I know what you're going to say," he started.

"You don't have time to tutor her! You made a promise, you can't just…"

"I'm not going back on it," he quickly interjected. "She's going to come to my office, we're not even going to my lecture hall. And only on weekdays, the weekends will still be free and ours to do whatever we like."

Danni stared at him; lips pursed together as she tried to collect her thoughts. She had known that staying still was boring him – hell, it was boring her to no end – but they had an arrangement and they had to stick with it. "This was all _your_ idea," she reminded pointedly.

"I know, but she was just begging me, and I couldn't say no," he replied and Danni rolled her eyes. "Do you know how rare people who search out knowledge, even when they don't have to, are?" he tried. "We both know that most people aren't like that."

She, again, took a moment to gather her thoughts. He couldn't help but smile at her just a little. He loved watching her mind work, he knew there was a lot of knowledge in there and she had to sort it out before she would say anything. She didn't ramble like he did.

"It doesn't matter what I say, does it?" she said eventually, which deflated him slightly. "You've already asked her and she said yes."

"Actually, she asked…"

"And you knew at the time it wasn't something you were supposed to do, because you didn't tell me before, only after," she continued and he trailed off. She wasn't wrong. "You never know when, or why, only who, right?"

"She's not travelling with us," he reassured her. He knew that was what she worried about, and after the whole mess that Clara Oswald had ended up being, he could understand that. Her memories were pretty much reformed now, but she still had no idea who Clara was, or who she was _to her_, and it frightened her. She had been adamant that she didn't want anyone else on the TARDIS.

Of course, for some reason, that didn't include Nardole. He still didn't quite understand that.

"It's only a matter of time before she will," Danni replied. "I know you, Theta. Once you have someone to show off to, you can't hold back."

He had to suppress his smile at that. Instead, he walked up the stairs towards me. "Trust me, there's only one person I want to show off to," he promised before he crouched in front of her chair. She had her eyes downcast, purposefully not looking at him the eye. "You never have to worry about that, my Pet."

But she did. All the time. "A thousand years is a long time," she muttered. "And we've been at this even longer now."

He caught her gaze. "And I've still yet to get bored," he replied. Her lips pulled up as she tried not to smile and he knew he'd won her over. "I even brought that idiot Nardole back to life for you."

Her eyes finally snapped to his. "Hey," she scolded, offended. "He's not an idiot, he's just irritating!"

He cupped her cheek. "Never worry about my attention," he promised. "In a room full of hundreds, I'm still only teaching to you."

She felt her cheeks warm up just slightly, touched at his words before she sighed, exasperated. "Oh, why do you have to be so charming?" she muttered and he knew she was happy for him to tutor Bill.

"I can't help it, I've always been like this," he replied and she chuckled slightly before leaning forward, capturing his lips with hers for a brief kiss.

"Speaking of Nardole, have you seen him?" she asked. "It's his turn to make food tonight and I'm worried it'll be fishy again."

The Doctor pulled a face, remembering Nardole's last attempt at making their dinner. It had been a lot of maceral and not much else. "I'll go fetch him. Perhaps you should go shopping with him."

Danni nodded, agreeing completely. She caught his lips again, and then again, until she pulling him up into the chair. "Later," she purred against him. "This is much more fun."

_~0~0~0~_

Usually, when the Doctor finished his lectures, Bill tried to be one of the first people out. Not _the_ first, that was too obvious, but one of the first so no one could ask her any questions. Even now the Doctor was tutoring her she still found herself rushing to leave, because she still wasn't sure if their new situation wasn't more suspicious than her just turning up.

But this time she hung back until almost the very end, when the brown-haired woman finally left the hall on her own. She tried to act unsuspicious as she followed her out, but quickly jogged to catch up with her.

"Hey!" she called, skidding in front of her because she realised that she didn't even know her name. The brown-haired woman looked rather weirded out. Bill couldn't blame her. "Hey, you."

"Hi," she replied, a little curtly. Again, Bill couldn't blame her. "Bill, right?"

"Yeah, that's me," she replied before pointing at her. "I-I don't actually know your name."

"Danni," she said. "Can-Can I help you?"

Bill realised that she'd just stopped this woman going about her daily life and, really, didn't have an actual reason to stop her. Well, she did, but it was purely her being nosy, which may have been a little rude.

"Are you staff?" she asked, a little rudely. Danni blinked, obviously not expecting that question. "It's just, I see you all the time, but you don't seem to do anything but go to the Doctor's lectures." She laughed awkwardly. "I mean, that's all _I_ do as well, to be honest, but you're like… Well, you're a proper student, aren't you? So you should be out and about, but you're never at any of the bars, or any I've been to at any rate."

"Um…"

"And I've asked a couple of people, but no one seems to really know who you are, and no one knows what degree you're on, so I thought that maybe you _weren't_ doing a degree after all. Maybe you were just, like, observing the Doctor. Like someone on staff sent to make sure he's doing his job. But, then, I wasn't sure if that was right either because you would do more than go to lectures, so, well, are you? Staff, I mean? Or a student?"

"You've been asking people about me?" Danni asked. Bill grimaced slightly. "Why didn't you just ask me if you were so curious?"

"Because, well, it seemed a bit rude?" she offered. "As does accosting you in a hallway, I guess."

Danni stared at her for a moment and Bill could almost feel the judgement coming from her. She motioned between the two of them. "I've not done a good job at this, have I?"

Danni shook her head. "Not really, no," she said a little bluntly. "Why do you want to know if I'm a student or a member of staff?"

"Well," Bill started. "It's just, I've seen you and the Doctor, you know, sharing looks and stuff, he seems to really like you, and I was just… curious? It just seemed like there was something going on, and he's a nice guy and all that, but, you know, if you're a student… we're supposed to look out for these things, you know?"

That turned out to be the completely _wrong_ thing to say. Danni's neutral look fell away to anger. "If you must know, my degree is in English and Classical studies," she snapped out. "I took physics as an elective just because I thought it sounded interesting. The Doctor is my professor, just like everyone else's. If you have a problem, take it up with him."

She didn't wait around for Bill to say anything else, or for an apology, striding off without looking back. Bill watched with a grimace, knowing that she hadn't exactly made a friend at that point. Sometimes her mouth ran away from her and she couldn't stop it until it was too late.

She really hoped it didn't get back to the Doctor.

But who _was_ she?

_~0~0~0~_

Danni chucked her bag down by the TARDIS door, letting it swing shut behind her. In their blue box she felt safe, and secure, and she always let out a little sigh of relief whenever she made her way back to it. The outside world was scary. The TARDIS, for all of her infinite possibility, was familiar and predictable.

"Theta?" she called. "I'm back!"

There was a brief silence where she checked the monitors for any unread messages or things of interest then the Doctor appeared in the doorway, cup of tea in hand.

"How was class?" he asked, holding the drink out to her. "Not too dull, I hope."

"Nah, I think I'm getting pretty good at Greco-Roman history," she replied. "I've got a couple of essays to write, but I've got plenty of time to do them."

"I didn't mean that one," he muttered and she shot him a giant smile, letting him know that she knew exactly what she meant.

"The lecture was fine," she promised. "Afterwards, on the other hand…"

His brows furrowed and immediately he needed to know every detail. "What happened?" he asked. "Was it Nardole?"

"No, it wasn't Nardole," she said with a sigh. He always thought it was Nardole. "It was your little protégé. She accosted me in the hallway and basically accused me of sleeping my way into your favourites list."

He smirked slightly. "Well…"

She shot him a pointed look. "That's _not_ what she meant," she snapped. "She thinks I'm doing inappropriate things with one of my professors, for no reason at all! It's insulting!"

The Doctor wasn't sure how he liked the sound of that. "I am right here," he muttered.

She shook her head. "No, don't do that," she warned. "I won't have my integrity undermined. I've worked hard for my degrees. I didn't have to sleep with _anyone_ to get them." She pointed at him. "You set her straight, alright?"

He sighed. "Yes, dear," he replied cheekily. "Although, it was your idea to be student and teacher, not mine."

"Well, I was annoyed at you," she grumbled. "We have to blend it and you couldn't be the student."

He held his hand out to her. "Too old?" he asked, wiggling his fingers to tempt her to him. He watched her shuffle on the spot, trying to resist, before she took it.

"Too much of a smartarse," she corrected. "The moment one of the teachers said something slightly wrong you would have been on your feet, unable to keep quiet." He took her other hand and she slid her fingers between his. "Then I'd have to make excuses and I'd get annoyed because they were wrong and trying to enforce it, and it would just be a mess."

"Hmm, that it would, my Pet," he agreed, his voice low as he pulled her closer.

"And you _know_ you love being called Professor," she continued. "Even if you correct people, you still love it."

"I do," he purred, leaning down to kiss her. She tilted her head, going in for the same kiss but paused before their lips met. This seemed to happen a lot when they talked, not that she was complaining about _that_. Whenever they tried to be serious, it ended up with them making out. But she had been stewing on Bill's rather pointed questioning all through her classes and it still upset her.

"I don't want her accosting me again," she warned him. "She's your student, not mine."

"Done," he promised and she believed him instantly. So, she leant up and closed the gap.

The door closed loudly across the room. "I hope you two are hungry," Nardole told them, a couple of bags in hand full of food. "I'm planning a large selection of…"

The Doctor and Danni turned to face him, eyes flashing at being interrupted. "_Nardole!"_

_~0~0~0~_

Bill had learnt over the last few months to be ready for anything when she entered the Doctor's office. So, the moment she did open the door, she reached out and caught the flying book that was coming towards her head. The Doctor seemed to wait for her, getting ready to chuck things at her the moment she came into the door. She didn't mind, not really. It was what made him the quirkiest and most interesting professor she'd ever come across.

"What's on the cards today, then?" she asked him, flipping the book open. For some reason, no matter how old or complicated the book, she had to check to see if there were pictures. Would they help? Probably not, but she checked anyway.

"Whatever was and whatever could be," was his cryptic reply, although she had come to expect that sort of talk from him. It seemed rather hard to get a straight answer from him on occasion, but she enjoyed the puzzle of trying to work it out.

"I was thinking, actually, we could over my essay again," she suggested. "_'The Quantum statistics of light_'. I'm still not happy about what I got on it."

"Oh, really?" he asked. "You've not mentioned it a hundred times before." He almost skipped down the stairs from the top level of his office, where he kept all his books, and towards her. "You got a first, you did well."

She pointed the book at him. "Did I though?" she countered. "I think I could have done better."

"So do I," he replied bluntly and, for a moment, she felt rather insulted until she remembered that she had been the one to bring it up in the first place. "Why do you think I've chosen that book?"

She looked back down at the book in her hands and smiled at the title. "You'd already planned on going over it again, anyway, hadn't you?" she asked. He nodded and motioned to the chair behind his desk that had become 'hers'.

"Sit, read chapters 4 through 7," he instructed. "I've got a lot more marking to do. When you get to the end, I'll see if you've retained any of it."

She groaned. "Not a quiz."

He grinned that wide grin of his. "Oh yes, a quiz," he replied. "You'll be a master of quantum physics yet."

So Bill sat down and began to read, and the Doctor kept an eye on her as he read through the next stack of essay's he'd assigned. He did like to watch Bill work, her mind absorbing everything in front of her. Her understanding of physics, so far, had been remarkable but her ability to ask questions was what he found truly fascinating. They never seemed to be about the subject at hand, but her mind picked up so many things at once that all of her questions would, eventually, lead back to what she wanted to know. It made him think about things differently.

He could see her losing focus, her gaze going from the book, to his desk, then back again. She quickly skimmed the pictures of Danielle he kept on his desk. It was the only way he could have a piece of her there; by having two photos of her previous bodies he could still see her but people dismissed them because neither of them were around. It had been a compromise that Danni had suggested herself.

He cleared his throat and she jumped in her seat, quickly going back to her reading. "There has been a complaint," he told her. "From a student about you. Apparently you accosted them in the hallway."

Bill looked up at him and he was staring at her pointedly. She knew who he meant almost instantly and shifted slightly. "Yeah, that wasn't one of my best moments," she drawled before her brows furrowed. "Wait, she told you about that?"

He opened his mouth, ready to tell her that _of course_ she told him, then remembered that he was supposed to keep her disinterested in their relationship. "No, she told the office, who told me," he replied. "I said that I would have a word with you about your incredibly inappropriate behaviour."

She nodded. "I know, I felt awful afterwards. I just, like, I just talk and it all spews out before I've really thought about it," she rambled, as if he hadn't noticed that. It was both endearing and irritating at times.

Hmm, like Danielle found Nardole. How interesting.

"It's just she's more of a mystery than you were," Bill continued. "I mean, I guess you still are a little, but _no one_ knows who she is. She doesn't have any friends, no one even knew her name. I always thought students were hanging around with each other, getting drunk and, I dunno, sleeping around?"

The Doctor knew that she was just describing the stereotypical student, and that she didn't mean Danni in the slightest, but he bristled slightly. "How very closed-minded of you," he retorted. The smile of confusion she sent her way was just another sign that maybe he'd taken her words slightly too personally. "Perhaps she had lots of friends you just don't know about," he offered. "Maybe her romantic life is incredibly fulfilling and as passionate as you wish it to be. Or maybe, just maybe, it's none of your business."

Bill nodded once. "You're right. You are right," she agreed. "My curiosity gets the better of me sometimes."

"Well, just make sure you aim it at something more appropriate," he suggested. "I'm your tutor, not your nanny. I don't have time to be telling you off all the time."

Bill thought it was adorable that he felt like he was telling her off. She tried not to smile. This Danni girl was just another mystery that she wouldn't be able to let go of. "Of course, I will," she promised.

The Doctor felt like his talk had gone very well, and he had squashed her curiosity as was needed. "Good, that's good." He motioned to her book. "Back to work, then."

Bill dipped her head, this time focusing fully on the words in front of her. When the Doctor felt like she had been sufficiently bored by the book, he pulled out her latest essay and chucked it onto the desk in front of her; '_Laser cooling ions: atomic clocks and quantum jumps._'

"92%," he told her and she grinned happily, picking it up to have a look through at the notes he had made. "Like I said; you can do much better."

_~0~0~0~_

Nardole had a lot of responsibilities. He had cooking, and cleaning, and he also acted as the Doctor's secretary when he needed one to deal with his more demanding university needs – meaning the ones that he didn't want to deal with at all but had to whilst maintaining the pretence of being a professor.

Nardole's biggest responsibility, though, was to make sure that the Vault was always maintained and guarded. He needed to keep the two Time Lords firmly on Earth without travelling away in their TARDIS and he had to make sure that what the Vault contained very much didn't get out. He checked on it throughout the day, usually between duties. There was a time when he had a more exciting life, but having your head chopped off and being rebuilt as a robot tended to calm people down.

He started at the sight of the brown-haired woman sat on the floor outside the Vault. Immediately his gaze looked around, looking for the Doctor, but he wasn't there. That was most unusual and he didn't like it at all.

"Ma'am, really," he scolded. "You're not supposed to be down here without supervision."

"I know, I made that rule, remember?" Danni snapped back, already sounding annoyed. It didn't particularly bother him; he knew she rather adored him.

"If I recall correctly, the Doctor made that rule," he pointed out and she turned her head to glare at him.

"And who, exactly, inspired the idea?" she countered before looking back at the door. "That's what I thought," she continued, as if his silence was because he was agreeing with her rather than the fact she'd not given him a chance to answer.

"Actually, I think it was because you were kidnapped and…" She glared at him and he quickly realised that they'd probably argue about it for too long if he let them. "That still doesn't change the fact that you shouldn't be down here on your own." He walked over to the door of the Vault, checking to make sure that no one had tampered with it. "If anything were to happen…"

"I was told that this was the most secure place in the universe," Danni interrupted. "That nothing could get in and, more importantly, nothing could get out."

Nardole nodded, picking up his checklist from where he kept it. "That is true, Ma'am," he reassured her.

"Well, which one is it, then?" she asked. "Either it's secure, or it's not. You can't have it both ways, Nardole."

She turned back to the Vault and glared at it like it housed the thing she hated most. Which, to be fair, it did. Nardole watched her out of the corner of his eye as he started his checks. In fact, the Vault housed the thing she was scared of most in the universe, and as such she _never_ came down to see it. She left it to the Doctor and himself to keep an eye on its security and contents, which is why he was currently doing the checks and not her.

"So, are we going to talk about what is worrying you?" he asked her.

"No," she said shortly. He shrugged.

"Okay, I'll just keep working," he said as if he hadn't wanted to hear her worries in the first place. They stayed in that silence for a little while, with only the sound of his pen on the paper checklist in the room. It had to paper. Couldn't leave an electronic trail for people to find.

"What do you know about Bill?" she asked him.

"Not a lot, Ma'am," Nardole replied, glancing at the Vault to check the temperature readings. "She works in the canteen but isn't an official student. Roughly 25." He looked over at her, his gossip face on. "According to her Facebook, her love life isn't going too well," he continued. "A string of first dates but no seconds yet."

"That's not what I meant and you know it. Why had the Doctor suddenly taken an interest in taking up his own personal student?"

Nardole let his hand hang by his side. "If you're worried about the Doctor looking at her…"

"Of course I'm not," she cut in. "I mean, once, maybe, but have you _seen_ me?" She waved her hand up and down her torso. "He'd be an idiot to let this go. No, I don't think he's trying to sleep with her on the side." She sighed. "I'm worried that he's going to make her his new companion."

Nardole frowned. "Is it a valid concern?" he asked and she nodded.

"You know the Doctor. He only takes interest in extraordinary people."

"Or he's really bored," Nardole offered.

"Neither of which are going to keep him on this planet," she stated. "He made a promise to stand guard for a thousand years. If she catches his attention enough, I don't think he'll be able to keep it and…" She glanced back at the door to the Vault. "I can't be left alone with her. You know I can't."

"Your husband loves you very much," he told her. "He will never leave you on your own with her. Neither will I, for that matter."

Danni smiled at him. "Thanks, Nardole," she said sincerely. "I'm glad you're here." She stood up off the floor. "You won't tell him I was here, will you?"

"Of course not," he replied, going back to his work. "You've given me very specific instructions not to."

Danni nodded. "That I have," she confirmed. "I don't want him worrying. She's-She's safe in there."

And if she hadn't stuttered, Nardole would have really believed that she believed that. She left him alone and he shook his head to himself.

"You know, Professor Song, you didn't pay me enough to be a physiatrist as well," he muttered to himself before pausing. "In fact, you never did pay me at all."

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor placed Danni's essay on the desk next to her. "Perfect, as always," he told her. She didn't look up from the book she was reading. "Perhaps I should make it harder for you."

"You can try," she said offhandedly. "I'm sure I'll still be your highest scorer, though."

"Do you think I go easy on you?" he asked, putting on an air of offence just to tease her. She shook her head.

"No, I'm just that good," she retorted and he chuckled. That was very true. But, if they were both honest, she did have a little bit of an unfair advantage. "Speaking of; how's Bill doing? Still getting Firsts?"

"Every time," he replied, sitting down in the chair next to her. "She noticed that the rug had moved underneath the TARDIS."

"Told you she would," Danni said, trying to not sound too smug. "People notice what you do with the things you buy them. They're very selfish like that." She highlighted the line she had just read - she had got her studying down to a fine art now - before looking up at him. "I assume you diverted her attention away?"

He shot her a look. "I do know what I'm doing," he replied boldly.

"So she's more curious than ever?" she asked cheekily. "You know, if she asks too many questions, you're going to have to let her go?"

"She won't," he promised.

"She will," Danni warned him. "And you'll love every minute of it because you always do. You love people who love asking questions."

"Is that why I love you?"

She paused again to shoot him a look. "Well, it's not just my stunning looks, is it?" she countered. He chuckled. "I just don't want you getting too attached…"

"I'm not attached, I'm bored," he countered. "I think I've taught you everything I know. It's her turn now."

Danni placed her highlighter down. "One; there is infinitely more in that big Time Lord brain of yours than I could ever fit in mine, so keep digging. Two; you are _so_ attached."

"I am not!" he protested indignantly.

"You went to her mum's past to get her photos for a Christmas present," she reminded him. "You never, not once, put that much effort into a Christmas present for Amy."

"Not true," he replied. "And just because I wanted to do something nice does not mean I'm going to swan off with her on some magical adventure." He straightened slightly. "I'm a professional. I'm just teaching her physics."

"Today you did a lecture on Starry Night by Van Gogh," she reminded him cheekily. "I just don't want you to get hurt, that's all."

"I appreciate it, but you don't have to worry," he reassured her. "Everything I need is right here."

They fell silent and Danni went back to her studying. "Do you miss it, though?" he asked offhandedly. "The travelling?"

"All the time," Danni replied. "I never stop. I hate staying still as much as you do. But you made a promise to a monster of a woman—" she looked up, cutting him off before he could protest. "-so there's nothing much we can do about it."

"But we could still, you know, take a trip?" he suggested temptingly. "Just a quick ten minutes somewhere new…"

"Theta," she cut in with a sigh. She popped the lid back on her highlighter and closed her book. "You said you would never leave her alone; we can't just jump off and hope the Earth can handle her."

"No, but _you_ could go," he pointed out. "Take Nardole and go off for a holiday. Nothing's stopping you."

She paused for a moment, looking at him to see if he was serious. When she realised that he was offering her the opportunity to go on without him she shrugged. "What's the point?" she replied. "Without you it's all a bit dull, really."

"That's not true."

She took another pause, pressing her lips together as she tried to form what she wanted to say. He loved watching her gather her thoughts, he could almost hear them all as she discarded what she didn't want to say and kept the thoughts she liked.

"When I jumped about, you still travelled, right?" she asked and he nodded. "And you enjoyed it, yeah? It was still beautiful?" Again, he nodded. "But you used to say the universe brightened when I appeared?"

"That it did," he agreed. "And it dulled when we were apart."

"Well, why would I go when it's dull?" she replied. "It might still be beautiful to see it now, but why would I go when it's raining? Why not wait for the sun?"

He smiled at her, touched by her words and the way she said them so matter-of-factly. She had told him that she knew he wasn't lying when he used a similar tone, and it was something that had come out of her when she had wiped her memory. He guessed her brain was filling in the blanks of where Clara Oswald fell out with pieces of him. Or, maybe, she just regenerated that way and he'd only just noticed it in recent years.

"Plus, if I go anywhere, then I won't know for certain that she's still in that vault," she continued. "I'm safer here than I ever will be away from here because of that point alone."

He deflated slightly, but he couldn't blame her. Knowing where the threat was, even if it was right beside you, was still better than not knowing where they were even if they were far away. He still didn't like her to think like that, though. He wanted her to feel safe, not at war.

"Oh, and here was me thinking that _I_ was a good enough reason," he teased anyway, hoping to relax her. The look she shot him said that it worked a little.

"You are," she reassured. "Definitely in the top three."

"Top three?!"

"Alright, the top five."

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor liked a puddle. It wasn't often he could say that, but he really did. There was a puddle in the courtyard that was interesting, which meant he finally had something to do instead of teaching and marking. He had something to investigate, which meant he get Danni to investigate with him. A proper date, as it were. If he could remind her how better having something to investigate was, then maybe he could convince her to a trip or two off-world. With both of them flying the TARDIS they'd be back before they'd even left. No one had to know that only Nardole was there protecting the Vault.

Danni had gone to type up something for her English class, which usually meant that she was in the library, so he'd taken it upon himself to analysis the liquid from the puddle. Hopefully by the time she got back he'd have a better idea of what it actually was. Then he could lead her into discovering it herself, and with a few encouraging words, a few bits of praise, they'd be rocketing around space and time once again.

The door burst open and the Doctor jumped up, surprised by her sudden and rather early return. His mind had already run through a few hundred excuses over what he had been doing when he realised it was Bill, not Danielle. She was panting as if she had been running and she jammed a chair under the door handle before darting back away from it.

"Hello, Bill," he said slowly, walking over to her. She looked panicked and she didn't tear her eyes from the door.

"Oh," she whimpered as water began to pour in from underneath the door. She was terrified.

The water stopped sloshing through like a waterfall and began pouring through like an organised puddle, which again was something the Doctor really hadn't seen of thought before. "What is that?" he asked lowly as it began growing from the ground, around the chair Bill had tried to barricade them in with.

"I'll tell you what it isn't," she replied. "It isn't a freak optical effect." The Doctor couldn't help but stare, amazed, as it began to form the shape of a small, young woman. "And it's following me."

It was amazing, and terrifying, and all the things the Doctor had missed from travelling. Quickly coming to the conclusion that it was the best thing he'd seen in a while, he leant closer, wondering how substantial the mimicking was. Would his hand go through it, or would he hit dripping skin?

"No, no, what are you doing?" Bill hissed.

His hand stopped. Maybe she was right. Who knew what the dripping creature could do to him? This is why he needed a Clara, or an Amy, or a Danni. He needed someone to stop him being stupid. It was very easy for him to fall into.

He quickly made a decision that, in hindsight, may not have been his best. He knew the consequences of it, he knew that Bill couldn't know about the hidden part of their lives, but there was a monster in front of them and his first goal was to get everyone safe.

"I'll tell you what," he declared, moving away from the liquid monster and towards Bill. "Let's just pop into my box." He opened the TARDIS door, ushering Bill through it.

"Your box?" Bill protested. "What good is getting in your box going to do?"

"What an extraordinarily long and involved answer this is going to be," he muttered to himself before stepping in himself, reaching outside just once for good measure to take the 'Out of Order' sign of the front.

Time to be a time traveller again.

_~0~0~0~_

_Hello all! Welcome to the start of Preservation, book 7 of the series! Can you believe it? I can't! I'm surprised there are so many of you still out there :P_

_Let me know what you think. I'll start review replies next chapter :)_


	3. The Water Woman

Bill loved how her life had suddenly changed. She had a tutor; she was a _student_. She had never even considered going to university despite how much she had wanted to. She left school and immediately got a job, and then another, and then another and it fell away to the back of her head. Some people were destined for education, she had thought she'd been destined to serve chips and she'd been very happy about it.

Of course, now she was a _student_. She was supposed to be walking across the campus, not just because she had a job, but because she was part of the community. Sure, she only had classes on an evening, but she was no longer out of place during the Doctor's lectures. She didn't have to sneak in because she was _expected_ to be there.

She was actually heading to the library one afternoon when she spotted the Doctor and Nardole – whose job she still wasn't certain of – scuttling across the grass like they had something to hide. All thoughts of doing work fell to the side as she immediately decided to follow them. How could she resist when they were acting so shady?

They headed around the back of the building and down some stairs that led to the underbelly of the building, and Bill was quick on their heels. She'd always been too curious for her own good, she wasn't sure if that was going to be her downfall, but it wasn't something she was actively trying to stop, either. She did wonder if she should try, though.

They led her to a metal door that looked like it shouldn't have been there, which was just more and more suspicious. The Doctor and Nardole had already gone inside and she tried the ring handle to open it. It didn't budge, but then she let it go and with a mechanical whirring noise, it opened on its own.

It was still _so_ strange, and Bill smiled slightly in her confusion. But then she stormed in, determined to get to the bottom of it. She didn't want to inadvertently end up being part of some strange terrorist attack, or robbery, or something, just because she was the Doctor's student. One he'd personally taken under his wing to teach one-to-one.

Oh god, what if she was going to be the fall guy to some master theft, or murder? What if he was part of the mafia and he was looking to recruit her?

Nah, not dressed like that he wasn't.

She walked in, the door shutting on its own behind her. The stairs were narrow, dark and damp, as most basements tended to be but she followed them down as quietly as she could.

"So, you're tutoring her then, hmm?" Nardole asked, his voice filtering down the hallway she was trying to walk down without falling. Would some overhead lights really be too much to ask for?

"Yes, I am," the Doctor replied as another mechanical whirring noise sounded. Were they drilling? It sounded a little like a drill.

"Why?"

"Why not?" the Doctor countered.

"Your wife is concerned," Nardole told him. "She's worried you're going to leave her on her own."

"I wouldn't do that," the Doctor protested and he sounded so offended Bill stopped in her tracks. He had a _wife?_

"Uh huh."

"_Again_," the Doctor said, sounding exasperated. Bill set off again, trying to see the pair. "I wouldn't do that _again_."

"It's a valid concern, though, isn't it?" Nardole pressed. "You leaving your post. You did promise…"

"I know what I promised," he snapped. "And I have every intention of keeping it." There was a pause. "What business is it of yours, anyway?"

"You're not supposed to get involved," Nardole said. "What are you teaching her, anyway?"

"Everything."

"Well, how can you teach anyone everything?"

"Because it rhymes," the Doctor offered and Nardole seemed rather happy, letting out a noise of approval. If the Doctor had a wife, then who exactly was Nardole to him? She had never pictured him with a wife but now she started picturing a short woman in her head, with grey hair in a bun, baking cakes and bread while he was at work. Why did she picture all old women as some 1800's house wife? That was something she hadn't know about herself.

And what about that girl, Danni, he kept smiling at? Was he having an affair? Was she suddenly in the plot of a soap opera?!

As Bill finally found herself in the dim room the Doctor and Nardole were in, she couldn't help but notice the random junk around her, all gross and covered in cobwebs. Maybe he was one of those hoarders she'd seen on television. She peered around the corner of a large, stone pillar and spotted the pair in front of another large, metal door, huddled together with a lamp. They seemed to be inspected it. She immediately, and rather strongly, wanted to know exactly what they were doing. She stretched around further, trying to see, but instead just knocked over some more junk and made a loud clattering noise.

She darted back around the pillar and then into the hallway, trying to keep her gasping to a minimal. What if they'd seen her...?

"The door upstairs, how did you set the security?" the Doctor asked Nardole, his voice low and serious. Bill pressed herself against the wall; she was in _so_ much trouble.

"Friends only," Nardole replied.

There was nothing for a moment, then they seemed to get back to work. Deciding she was safe – for now- Bill very slowly, and very quietly, made her way back out to the surface before darting off from the door and back towards the library. Or home. Yeah, maybe home. She could come back later and ask him all about it.

It was all very strange, and had her imagination running a mile a minute trying to work out what she'd just witnessed. On the surface it didn't seem particularly worrisome; two men working underground on some project. But it was mysterious, and secret and she'd seen enough movies to know that nothing ever looked as simple as it seemed…

And then, around the corner, sat a woman. She had curly hair, and she looked sad and all thoughts of strange, sci-fi doors flew out of Bill's head. The woman, it turned out, had a star in her eye and hated the university so much she just wanted to leave. She was absolutely mesmerising.

That was how Bill met Heather.

_~0~0~0~_

The TARDIS was truly a majestic machine. She was infinite, and beautiful, and capable of anything and everything you could possibly think of. And, as everyone spotted when they first stepped in, she was bigger on the inside.

Of course, spotting that meant that you had to step in and look, rather than pressing yourself up against the door to try and see out of the tiny windows at the top, as Bill did the moment she stepped inside. After all, she didn't want to be caught unawares by the strange, water woman who was chasing her.

A strange water woman that she had been trying so hard to date.

"How do we stop it getting in?" she asked him. "We're trapped in here!"

The Doctor, who was much less concerned about being attacked by a water woman and more concerned on _why_ there was a water woman in the first place pointed to the doors with his key still in hand. "Nothing gets through these doors," he promised her.

Bill looked at him, absolutely flabbergasted by the words that had come out of his mouth. "But they're made of wood," she pointed out. "They've got windows!"

The Doctor just grinned at her, running into the console room to grab his jacket. He loved this part. Where they didn't notice at first, but then they turned around and saw just how majestic the TARDIS was. It was one of his favourite parts about having a companion.

Not that Bill was going to be his companion, he had a promise to keep after all, but it didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it.

"Look, this is all mad, I know, but that's the girl I told you about. Heather," Bill explained as she continued to look out of the window. The Doctor had figured that, considering how she seemed more surprised that she was being chased rather than the thing that was chasing her. "Only I don't think it's really her. I know this is hard to believe. I know you're not exactly a sci-fi person…"

The Doctor quickly sorted himself out for when she turned around, trailing off as she finally saw the TARDIS for the first time.

"Time and Relative Dimension in Space. TARDIS for short," he told her grandly. "You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be. Any questions?"

Then she said something completely baffling. "Is this a knock-through?"

He didn't really know how to respond to that. Not a question he'd really been asked before. "Well, in a way, yes."

She had already moved on from her original question to look around. She was smiling because she didn't understand it. "Look at this place. It's like a…"

"Spaceship," he finished for her knowingly.

"Kitchen," she finished, cutting him off completely.

Again, as he had noticed over the short time that he'd known her, Bill managed to be so close to the right answer and yet _spectacularly_ wrong. "A what?"

"A really posh kitchen, all metal," she replied, motioning to the console as she decided that she _really_ liked her answer without listening to the one he'd given her. He really needed to get a handle on that. "What happened with the doors, though? Did you run out of money?"

Well, that was just insulting.

"What you are standing in is a technological marvel," he insisted, annoyed. "It is science beyond magic. This is the gateway to everything that ever was, or ever can be."

He looked around himself, still not quite able to believe how wonderful the TARDIS was. He absolutely adored their home and what she could offer. Every time he thought on it, even for a moment, he felt like a school boy. He lived in a TARDIS, a time machine, a space…

"Can I use the toilet?"

He turned around, pulled out of his thoughts. "Pardon?"

She shot him a look, talking through gritted teeth, embarrassed. "I've had a fright. I need the toilet."

He motioned to the stairs. Perhaps they could try again when they "It's down there, first right, second left, past the macaroon dispenser."

"Thanks."

She darted down the stairs only to be met by Nardole, who appeared from the doorway out of the room. "Oh, human!" he said in voice that almost sounded like he'd seen an ant in his kitchen. He continued up the stairs and motioned back to her. "Human alert. Do you want me to repel her?" he asked the Doctor, who shook his head.

"She's just passing through. She wants to use the toilet," he explained in a bit of a grumble.

Nardole pulled a face and looked back at Bill. "Oh, I'd, er, give it a minute, if I were you."

Bill pulled her own face, a little grossed out, when the TARDIS shuddered with a bang. She had to grab onto the railings to stop herself falling over and the Doctor and Nardole rushed to the centre of the room.

"Ooo, what was that?" Nardole exclaimed, once again very worried. The Doctor had noticed it was a constant state of his, he had to wonder how he managed to get anything done being so worried all the time.

He turned the monitor around, showing Nardole the water woman outside in the office. "We have an incursion on campus. Extra-terrestrial. We're under attack," he explained. He moved to the controls, setting them in motion. "Let's move."

Bill looked up at the time rotor and the way it moved up and down, whirring and flashing lights. Again, she smiled. "Oh, my God! This isn't just a room, is it?" she exclaimed.

The Doctor shot her a look. He no longer had time for this part, she'd missed her shot. She was going to just have to work it out herself, be very impressed, and he'll deal with questions later. "No, it's not just a room," he muttered.

"This is a lift!"

Once again, she managed to be so close to the answer and yet _so_ far away. How was she managing to get such good grades when she missed all the obvious stuff?

He made his way to the door, Nardole following and beckoning Bill to follow them. She wasn't sure what she'd expected to see outside the room but the dark basement she'd followed them to definitely wasn't it. She'd pretty much forgotten that it had even existed because she'd been immediately distracted by Heather.

The two men immediately rushed over to the wall where the vault doors were sat, checking them over. Bill cautiously stepped out and looked up at the box, then in the box, then around it to check that she was really seeing what she thought what she was seeing.

"No interference here, as far as I can see. The vault's secure," the Doctor muttered to himself.

"So your box can move? It can go anywhere it likes?" Bill asked, still drawn to the blue box. Much like everyone else tended to be once they'd noticed her.

"Mmm. Good, innit?" Nardole replied with a smile.

"Anywhere at all, in the whole university?"

The Doctor paused his scanning, screwdriver in hand. He looked down at Nardole. "Is it my imagination, or is this taking longer than normal?" he asked and Nardole nodded his agreement. He kept his attention firmly on the vault, though, making sure that it was as secure as they needed it to be.

"Hang on. The room's still inside the box. This isn't a knock-through," Bill realised before she gasped and turned to her tutor. "Doctor! It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!"

"Way-hey!" Nardole cheered. "We got there!" He and the Doctor shook hands in a congratulatory way, the Doctor rolling his eyes slightly at just how long it had taken her to get to the point that she should have been at when they'd first entered the box. Then again, the way her brain worked seemed rather fascinating, it was one of the things that kept their tutorage rather interesting.

"How is that possible? How do you do that?" she asked.

Nardole knew that pulling the Doctor away from his job was a bad idea, and also probably quite impossible, so he turned to bill instead. "Well, first you have to imagine a very big box fitting inside a very small box." She nodded along, smiling as she waited for the answer. "Then you have to make one," he finished and her smile fell slightly. "It's the second part people normally get stuck on."

"Can we shut up, please? Busy, busy," he snapped at them both. "I need to know if there's any interest in what's inside this vault."

He knew that it was safe. He knew that no one could get into the vault doors and to what was behind it without some serious power and hacking skills, but that still didn't make him less worried. It didn't stop his hearts beating a little faster, and it didn't stop him wondering if he should get Danielle before they managed to break inside and let what was in there loose.

"Either the creature came here specifically for what's in here, or it's just a coincidence," the Doctor explained to Bill, who was still confused about everything that was going on.

Bill shook her head. "It's just a coincidence," she replied confidently.

"Well, we can't know that for sure," he told her.

"Yeah, we can," she said. Both he and Nardole looked at her, waiting for her to explain her reasoning. "It was here for ages before it did anything. If it had work to do, why would it lie around in a puddle?"

The Doctor wasn't sure if he liked that she made a lot of sense, especially considering he'd never thought of it himself. He turned back to the lock. "I don't know. Maybe it's a student?"

Bill was a little offended, whereas Nardole laughed like he was amused by the conversation. "Oh, banter. It's good, this," he declared happily. He looked at Bill expectantly. "Your go again."

The water rushing down the stairs and into the basement cut off any more of the banter that Nardole was waiting for. The Doctor looked up at the shorter man. "Nardole, we need to move away from the doors and towards the TARDIS," he instructed in a whisper. They all were in agreement, so without any words or complaints, the trio moved towards the TARDIS. They paused in front of the steps as the water continued to pour into the room and watched at it began to rise and form the water woman once again.

"What if it attacks us?" Nardole whispered.

"Well, that's the good news," the Doctor replied in kind. "It means it's not interested in what's inside the vault. It just wants to kill us."

This did nothing to comfort either of them. The water woman stared at them, and they stared back and the Doctor watched her pay absolutely no attention to the vault on the other side of the room. That was good. That was the best-case scenario. That meant that the vault was safe, that his wife was safe, and that he could continue trying to work out what the puddle woman wanted.

"Run!" he shouted and everyone rushed into the TARDIS as the woman screamed loudly after them. That was definitely an inhuman screech. There probably wasn't much of her left in it. That thought always made him sad, even if he couldn't process it in the moment.

"It's not interested in the vault, it's chasing us," the Doctor explained to them both as he set them back into flight. "Let's give it a proper challenge. Let's see how far she's prepared to go."

"But what about my friend? What about Heather? Can you save her?" Bill asked. The Doctor didn't have an answer for her. Or, rather, he feared he didn't have an answer for her that she would like. The TARDIS landed on the other side of the flight with a thud.

"First things first. Let's see if we can survive her," he replied. He walked calmly the doors, opening them to take a peek outside to make sure he'd landed where he'd aimed for. He had, so he stepped out into the warm sun and the chattering people. Even just flying from one side of the Earth to the other was a thrill he'd missed immensely. He had hoped he'd be able to tempt Danni into doing a trip with him, but this was almost just as good. Running from an alien, moving in space, being the Doctor.

He'd really missed it.

He turned to watch Bill step out, turning on the spot as she tried to comprehend where they'd landed. "But…" He nodded. "We've moved again."

"We have," he confirmed.

"It was night," she said, watching all the people walk by like nothing was wrong. "Now it's day."

"Definitely day."

"Oh, my God!" she rushed over to him, voice low. "Have we travelled in time?"

"No, of course not," he dismissed. "We've travelled to Australia!"

He moved out of the way so she could see the Sydney Opera House, something he was sure she had missed. He did it with a grin on his face, like a grand reveal, expecting a happy, confused and amazed reaction. Maybe even some applause, he wasn't sure how she would react in the face of something like a spaceship.

Instead her mouth opened and closed a couple of times, like a fish, then she turned on the spot to see how everything was different, how it was warm and sunny and therefore definitely not England. He kept smiling at her, enjoying the show until she turned and dashed into the nearest café, then into the toilets.

This wasn't his area of expertise; it had always been up to Danielle to reassure people about the TARDIS and the fact that they were aliens. He paused, hand outreached to open the bathroom door; he had to tell her that as well, didn't he? He had to explain everything. It wasn't like he hadn't done it before; he'd done it numerous times all on his own, but she had looked panicked, and upset, and a little queasy and he wasn't sure if he was up to dealing with someone else throwing up because of the TARDIS.

Luckily, she didn't have too much time to protest to him being an alien when the water woman was back to attack, so they rushed back to the TARDIS to go somewhere else. Somewhere hopefully safer so they could stop running for a few minutes and he could work out a proper plan that wasn't just 'run as fast and far as you can to see if it will follow'.

Nardole jumped in surprise when they burst back through the doors, almost as though as he wasn't expecting them which didn't really make much sense because it was _his_ TARDIS after all. Still, the Doctor dismissed it as part of him just being an overall idiot and got to setting them back into flight.

"Where are we going?" Bill asked.

"As far as we can. She made Australia in a minute. Let's see what she can really do," he replied, flipping another switch.

Nardole, who was watching the monitors, looked up with a frown. "Sir, we're leaving Earth," he said. "What about the vault? What about your wife?"

"Oh, we're fine. If there's any trouble, I'll get a message on this," he held up his psychic paper. "She's smart, she'll be fine."

He tucked it away in his pocket, but Nardole didn't seem too convinced. "But, sir, you made a promise…"

"She'll understand," he cut in sharply before looking down at the controls. "She'll understand," he repeated, more to reassure himself. When it came down to that vault and the contents, he wasn't sure she would.

He pushed the switch back into position. "Let's see how long it takes for her to get here."

"Where are we?" Bill asked.

"Other end of the universe. Twenty-three million years in the future." He turned, giant grin on his face. "Oh, yes, she's a time machine to."

There it was again. Her confused smile. He would never tire of pulling that from anyone.

Outside was sparse, rocky, dusty and bright. Two large moons hung in the sky and he was sure that more orbited the planet. It wasn't too warm, or too cold. The sparkle in the rocks was very pretty. There was some planet life, all grey because of how baron the land was. Perhaps, behind the rocks, there would be a nice walking path. It'd been decades since they'd been on a proper hike together.

Bill's first steps out were a little wobbly as she looked around, wondering just how more bizarre her day could be. "So this is somewhere else? This is a different planet? Not Earth, a different one?" she asked.

"That's the general idea," the Doctor replied softly.

"That's different sky? Is it made of something different? What is sky made of?" Bill rambled off, obviously not even trying to contain what questions were immediately coming to her mind.

"Lemon drops."

She looked at him, incredulous. "Really?"

"No," he replied sadly. "But wouldn't that be nice?"

"You can be very silly sometimes, you know that?" Nardole told him and he couldn't help but smile. He did rather love being an old fool. "So, how do we know this water thing is dangerous?"

"Ah, because most things are," the Doctor replied and Nardole agreed.

"Why? Is everything out here evil?" Bill asked.

"Hardly anything is evil, but most things are hungry. Hunger looks very like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery," he explained. "Or do you think that your bacon sandwich loves you back?"

"So what is it, and what was it doing on Earth?" Nardole asked.

It, as it turned out, was a liquid spaceship. Or, rather, a droplet from a spaceship that could turn into anything that spaceship needed it to be. Some sort of intergalactic space oil. It had seen Bill's friend, found someone who wanted to escape from the planet like it did, and stole her away to do just that.

How fascinating. How… new. The Doctor loved new. He loved things he didn't understand because then he could make himself understand them. Or he got to live in ignorant bliss never knowing. Bother were good options. Both made for fantastic stories.

Nardole sat down on one of the larger rocks. "So why is it chasing this one?" Nardole asked, motioning to Bill.

"Everything wants, everything needs," the Doctor offered, walking over to Nardole.

"But why does it want her?"

"I don't know. I don't know everything, Nardole," he retorted, exasperated." I don't have it all written down."

"You act like you do," Nardole said pointedly.

"I act like I do, because I don't."

"It must be looking for something."

"Of course it is, everything is," the Doctor agreed. "What, in the end, are any of us looking for?" He thought back to Danielle, who was currently oblivious to his actions and probably studying a bit too hard. Would she notice he was gone? "We're looking for someone who's looking for us."

He looked over at Bill just in time to see her pulled face first into a puddle by the water woman. Both he and Nardole rushed over. "Bill!" he cried, grabbing one side of her whilst Nardole grabbed the other. "Quick!"

They managed to rip her from the grasp of the angry woman, pulling her away from the puddle. "Back to the TARDIS!" he instructed, and no one protested as the woman screamed and the puddle exploded into a giant geyser.

The Doctor wasn't sure what to do next except to run away, so he opened the door to the TARDIS and ushered Bill and Nardole in first in the hopes that it would by him a second or two to come up with an exciting and, more importantly, functional plan.

Of course, as Bill gasped for air, all of his plans fell from his mind as he was greeted by his wife, stood at the console, looking rather angry.

_~0~0~0~_

Danni, surprisingly, had begun to really love being a student. She was starting to actually enjoy studying and, now that she'd made her way through a few of the degree courses at the university, she had gotten a real good hand on her studying. She was efficient, keen and smart. All the things a model student should be.

Well, she was _mostly_ keen. Sometimes, though, she was also like every other student and studying felt like the worst thing she could possibly do at that point. If she had to look up another webpage, or read another out-of-date textbook then she was sure her brain would melt and pool in a small puddle on the desk she had taken in the library.

Most other students, she knew, would use it as a reason to have a night out. They'd call up their friends and tempt them into going down to the pub, or the bar, or something… she actually wasn't sure what students did, these days. She'd fallen out of keeping up with them a couple decades ago. So, she didn't even think about calling anyone up. She, instead, went to find Nardole.

Nardole, who was ever patient with her as they walked through the TARDIS hallways, not doing much at all except talk. She was sure that this wasn't how he'd expected to spend his life, although she was also sure that he didn't really mind it.

"I'm not doing it," she told him firmly. "Not a chance."

"You'll enjoy it," Nardole told her, again patiently.

"No, I won't," she told him. "I'm not a tutor. I don't like people."

"That's not strictly true, is it?" Nardole pointed out.

"You and the Doctor don't count," she replied, making Nardole feel very loved indeed. "Plus, I'm a student. I can't just suddenly become a tutor; it'll look suspicious and she's already asking questions she shouldn't be."

"Maybe you could be another one of his students, then," Nardole offered. "You'll feel much better about the entire situation if you were there to oversee it."

"I trust the Doctor completely. If he says he's not going to take her on as a companion, then I believe him," she said, promptly ending the conversation. "Plus, why should I have to waste my time sitting in on the lessons, when you could do it for me?"

"Because, ma'am, I'm very busy looking after the Vault," Nardole reminded her. Danni shot him a glare in return.

"River told you to do what I said," she said, sounding frustrated at his lack of compliance. "You can sit in, not me."

He sighed, resigned. "Yes, Ma'am."

"_You're safe in here. You're safe in here and you always will be._"

Danni held her hand up, stopping them both in their steps. "Did you hear that?" she asked Nardole, who nodded. She motioned with her head and scuttled to the doorway to the console room, where she could see both the Doctor and Bill. She turned to Nardole, outraged.

"He's brought her onto the TARDIS!" she hissed, dipping back into the hallway. Nardole stuck his head around the door.

"Oh, so he has," he stated, as if he was mildly interested rather than concerned. That just annoyed her further and she grabbed him, pulling him back into the hallway.

"He can't just bring her onto the TARDIS!" she snapped angrily. "What the hell is he thinking?"

"Perhaps you should go ask him, ma'am," he suggested and she shook her head.

"No, no, I shouldn't have to ask him anything. He should be telling me before he brings random humans into our home," she raged. "He's not tried to-" she reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone to check she hadn't missed any calls. She hadn't. "- ring me and let me know. He's just… just brought her in!"

"Well, maybe he has a good reason to?" Nardole said, trying to be diplomatic. Again, it wasn't what Danni was looking for and she pointed her phone at him.

"We're supposed to be undercover! No one is supposed to know we have a _time machine!_ We have something incredibly fucking dangerous in the basement that we're supposed to be keeping an eye on. He's not supposed to show off to anyone!" She shifted on the spot. "Well, no one else except me, anyway."

Nardole didn't try to hide the way he rolled his eyes. "Ma'am, he is always showing off to you. It gets in the way of us trying to look after the Vault, if you haven't noticed."

"I have noticed," she replied, still sounding incredibly angry. "This isn't that, is it?" She pushed him towards the doorway. "Go on, then. Get to work."

"Work?!" he exclaimed and she shushed him. "What work?"

"Watching over them two, like we just discussed," she reminded him. "You're going to keep an eye on them and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

He sighed again, knowing he wasn't going to be able to talk his way out of being the babysitter. "How do you want me to report back? I guess you don't want him knowing you're here?"

"Work that out as it happens. You're supposed to be smart, Nardole, don't act like an idiot," she snapped.

Danni stayed in the doorway, peeping around the corner as Nardole made his way out into the console room, deterring Bill from heading into the hallway. She watched as the Doctor sent them into flight, holding onto the doorframe for the slightly shaky ride. She became more and more annoyed as the Doctor and Bill rushed out of the doors and only had enough time for Nardole to tell her they were in Australia before they were back and they were in flight again.

To the other end of the universe.

She just couldn't believe he'd left her behind like he had. He'd just jumped in the TARDIS, dragged a human along for an adventure and hadn't even dropped her an email or a text! She knew he didn't particularly like any mode of communication that wasn't a straight up call, but it just felt like a giant slap in the face that he'd gone without her and not even informed her that he was going off world.

What if something happened? He'd promised that she was safe, that nothing could happen but why should she believe that? She had so much more experience that said that a vault wasn't going to keep that monster at bay. If she wanted to escape, if Missy decided that she was bored, then some metal doors weren't going to stop her from leaving. And if she was on her own, if Danni was on her own…

She watched them from the monitor as the Doctor tried to work out what was going on, and she knew that Bill was in danger but she found herself rather unable to care. It had nothing to do with how the Doctor had seemingly taken a companion on without telling her, it was the fear that Missy was now on Earth, on her own, and she _knew_ that the other Time Lady would know that. The Doctor might think that any monster was capable of change, of redemption, but Danni knew differently. There was no saving Missy, there was only delaying the inevitable. And he'd just given her the perfect opportunity to devastate them all again.

Which was why she was angry, and why she stood there when the Doctor came in, and why she wasn't surprised, in the slightest, by his terrified look. She must have looked like a force to be reckoned with, and she was glad. She wanted him to know how much it had hurt her.

"Oh!" Nardole exclaimed, trying and failing to sound surprised. "Ma'am!"

Bill, who was coughing through her gasped, stared at the woman in bewilderment. "Hang on, you're-you're that Danni girl," she said, a little redundantly. "What are you doing here?" She turned to the Doctor. "What is she doing here?"

The Doctor, on the other hand, knew that he'd been very much caught out and instead of rushing to the console to set them in flight and away from the angry space oil, he just felt the same fear as a child who'd been caught sneaking out after bedtime.

Danni pressed her lips together as she stared back at her husband, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. The monitor had been pulled around to where she was stood so it was obvious that she had been watching them outside. She reached out and, without looking, flicked the switch to send them into the time vortex.

The Doctor shot her a sheepish grin. "I can explain," he started.

"I'm sure you can," Danni replied. "I'm sure there's a brilliant explanation as to why you're at the end of the universe."

Nardole raised his hand. "Ma'am, if I could just…"

"No, you can't," Danni interrupted and he lowered his hand. She didn't take her eyes off the Doctor. "You broke your promise."

"Now-Now, hang on," he started, moving forward and up to her. "This isn't just some trip, we're in danger…"

"I know, I was watching, I saw the giant geyser with the face in it," Danni retorted. She pointed at him. "You left me behind!"

"Actually, as you're here to tell me off, I don't think…"

"You left me behind!" she repeated, biting out the words and his lips slammed shut. "You left me on Earth, on my own, with… with that _thing!"_

"I knew you were safe," the Doctor reassured her. "I was going to come home at the same time I'd left, there was no need to panic."

"You _left me_ on my own!" Danni shouted back.

"I thought you were in the library?" the Doctor countered. She nodded.

"I was. I came back for something and me and Nardole got talking about you and your student," she explained, motioning over to the bald man. The Doctor shot him an angry look, furious that he'd not warned him and suddenly Nardole looked rather worried. "And I overheard you giving her the companion speech and asked Nardole to keep an eye on you!"

"I don't need to be babysat!" the Doctor protested.

"Apparently you do!"

Bill, who had just managed to catch her breath, looking between the two arguing like they were an old married couple. "What is going on?" she asked. "I mean, we're right in the middle of an alien oil attack!"

"Yes, we know," Danni snapped at her. "We'll get back to that, hold your horses." Bill blinked, a little taken aback over being dismissed but Danni didn't pay her any more attention. "You told me that this wasn't why you were tutoring her!"

"I didn't exactly plan this, you know?" the Doctor pointed out. "I don't plan alien invasions; I just stop them."

"No, UNIT stops them, that's what they're for. Our job is to watch that vault and your job was to not leave me alone with it! What if something had happened? Do you have any idea what would have happened to me if anything did?"

Her anger was fear, he knew that, so he stepped forward again until he could take her hands in his. "Nothing was going to happen," he promised her gently. "You were fine. You can handle more than you think you can."

"No, I really can't," Danni insisted. If that vault had opened, if the contents had escaped… If she'd had to fight, and she'd not been able to… "You promised to not leave me alone with her, and you did."

"I'm sorry," he promised, pulling her close for a hug that, thankfully, she let him do. She didn't wrap her arms around him but he knew that was just because she was still afraid. She had become better with the vault over the years, no longer spending hours and hours down there watching it to make sure nothing got out, but it still scared her. He still had to prove that she was safe to her in terms she would accept.

Bill's eyes widened as she realised what was going on. "Oh my god, she's your wife!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, thank you for noticing," the Doctor retorted and Danni pulled away, as if she suddenly realised that they had an audience.

"But-But I'm not one to judge, but you're old enough to be her grandad."

Even Nardole winced at her words. "You might want to take that back," he warned her as Danni glared at her.

"And what has that got to do with you at all?" she countered. "Weren't you just accusing me of sleeping with him just before Christmas? Or was it alright when he was my teacher, but now it's not so 'inappropriate' you can't see it?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Bill told her.

"No, you're just accusing me of having bad morals and also not being good enough for my own husband," Danni snapped back. "In my own home, no less." She looked up at the Doctor. She was very much tired of having someone in her home who had done nothing but throw accusations at her. "What's chasing us?"

The Doctor was slightly startled at the change in conversation, but was also quite glad about it. "Space oil," he explained. "Well, not exactly oil, more like a liquid spaceship. And it's taken the form of Bill's friend and is trying to eat her."

"And what's the plan?"

Bill wasn't sure if she should have been insulted by the fact that she seemed very unconcerned about that fact that she was being chased by space oil, but as she was still reeling from the fact that the Doctor really did have a wife, it didn't register straight away. Not that she didn't think he shouldn't have a wife – although, if she was honest, he had always seemed a bit too, well, alien, to be thought of in that context at all. Love was love; everyone had the potential to find someone if that was what they wanted. It just… She knew him, she'd been tutored personally by him, and it had never come up so she'd sort of dismissed it.

"Basic sterilisation," the Doctor explained. "We're going to run that think through the deadliest fire in the universe."

Nardole nodded along. "Yes, that sounds excellent. The deadliest fire in the universe." He made it sound like the title of a movie rather than something that Bill would never have thought she would ever hear. "That's definitely good."

Danni, who was looking at the console along with her husband, didn't even look back at him. "We're going to have to run through it first, you know that, right?"

"Less good now."

Bill held onto the railings as Danni and the Doctor flew them away. They had a fluidity she hadn't expected, neither of them saying a word as they pushed all the buttons and switches that she didn't understand. They'd obviously been doing this for a while together. Like, a long time.

"Are you an alien too?" she asked before she caught herself. "Oh my god, you are, aren't you?"

Danni didn't look up from what she was doing. "_This_ is who you chose to bring onto the TARDIS?" she asked under her breath.

"She's smart, it just takes her a moment to realise that," the Doctor replied just as lowly. Danni rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I am," she retorted and Bill gasped in realisation.

"Oh my god, that's why you don't have any friends, isn't it?" she exclaimed. "So people don't find out you're living amongst us!"

Danni looked at her, incredulous, as the TARDIS landed. "Excuse me?"

Bill's brows furrowed as her thoughts talked over Danni. "Why are you pretending to be a student, though?"

The Doctor rushed up the stairs to the platform above, patting Bill on the arm on his way. "Maybe for another day, eh?" he said. "Let's get you safe first."

Nardole checked the screens and grimaced. "Oh, not there. I don't like there!" he cried as the Doctor rushed back and chucked an old sonic screwdriver at him.

"I want you running interference. Can you do that?" he asked.

"Can I say no, sir?"

"No," Danni replied for him, so Nardole nodded.

"Yes, then."

"Where are we?" Bill asked.

"Well, we're basically in the middle of a war." Bill really didn't like the sound of that, so opened her mouth to protest but the Doctor waved them away. "No, but, well, it's a war zone, and this is just your basic skirmish," he explained. And it's not as bad as it sounds, I promise you." He began ushering everyone out the door, with Bill and Nardole in front and Danni bringing up the rear. He knew that, despite being annoyed at him, she'd still want to come out into the madness. Neither of them could resist. "Come on, I've got friends here, old friends."

Danni grabbed his arm before he stepped over the threshold into the spacecraft outside. "I'm still angry at you," she told him. "We're not done talking about this."

"I didn't think we were," he replied. "But don't you think we're a bit busy now?"

She nodded. "Daleks, though?" she asked. "Was there not a better place to go?"

"Dalek fire. Purest in the universe," he said and she had to agree, as much as she didn't like it. They rushed out as well and to Bill, who was waiting for the pair. Nardole had already run off to do his job, sending out as much interference as he could as the trio made their way through the rubble and the explosions to the sound of tin robots calling out for the Doctor.

"Are we still in the future?" Bill asked.

"No. This is the past," the Doctor replied.

"Doesn't, doesn't look like the past."

"Doesn't look like _your_ past," Danni corrected her.

Bill's terror level was so high that she didn't really question the snarky comment. She just continued to follow the Doctor and Danni through the wreckage, hearing the battle cries and wondering why it was happening to her. "But are we safe here?"

"Well, that's up to Nardole, so probably not," the Doctor retorted and Danni glared at him.

"I've told you to be nice to him!" she scolded. "He's not an idiot, he just acts like one!"

"Where are we going?" Bill asked as something large exploded behind them. The Doctor seemed to know where he was heading, and Danni wasn't far behind him. He obviously had something in mind and not at all concerned about the faint screaming they could hear.

"Into the fire," was his reply, which offered her nothing. "Come on."

They had to climb through holes in corridor walls, and around large craters in the floor. They had to run past people dying, and gun fire, all which has Bill's heart pounding in her chest and her head swimming as she felt more and more overwhelmed. None of it seemed to hide them, though, as they came across Heather, still made of water and still terrifying and upsetting. She was stood at the edge of a corridor and, at the other, was a large robot that looked a little like salt shaker except scarily large and in front of fire and carnage.

"What's that?" Bill exclaimed as the robot's head swivelled around and it stared at them with one, long eyestalk.

"The deadliest fire in the universe," the Doctor replied.

"A Dalek," Danni added. She was sure that was meant to mean something, but all she saw was a giant robot and the woman who was trying to kill her.

"Identify. Intruder. Identify," the Dalek commanded. The Doctor moved forward, holding his sonic screwdriver out to it.

"Scan this device and identify me!" he instructed. The Dalek did as he said and immediately went into a panic.

"You are the Doctor. You are an enemy of the Daleks!" it exclaimed and the Doctor nodded.

"Oh, yes, I am!"

"_Exterminate!_"

The Doctor grabbed both Danni and Bill and pulled them behind a metal pillar as the Dalek fired at them. The bolt zoomed straight past them and hit Heather in the stomach. She rippled at the attack, as if someone had thrown a stone into some water, but didn't seem at all disturbed by it.

"_Exterminate_," she repeated. The Dalek tried again, firing at her but nothing happened except her repeating the war cry.

The Doctor looked down at Danni, who was peeking around the corner with a giant smile on her face as she watched the exchange. He dipped his head down. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked lowly.

"What? Daleks, killer water women and running through a warzone?" she countered before looking up at him, a flirty smirk on her lips. "Who can resist?"

He placed a kiss on her hair. "Not me," he agreed.

Bill looked at them both like they had two heads, which they could have done considering they were aliens and she'd seen plenty of movies where aliens used devices to make themselves look more human. The Doctor grabbed her arm again and they began running away.

"What was that thing?" she asked.

"A Dalek," Danni replied. "I told you that before."

"Yeah, but what's a Dalek?"

"Nevermind. It's a Dalek," the Doctor told her as a shot flew past their head. It hit some rubble ahead of them, causing it to explode and cutting off their only escape route. They all turned around slowly to see the Dalek stood there, ready to kill them all.

"_Exterminate_," it slurred and the Doctor and Danni shared a look.

"Well, there's just not right at all," Danni declared and the pair quickly approached the creature with Bill at their heels. Danni looked up at the Doctor, because there didn't seem to be anything wrong with it. "Have you ever heard of a drunk Dalek?" she asked him.

"Once," he replied. "It was a weird day; I'll have to tell you about it sometime. But look," he nodded towards the eyepiece. Danni moved a little closer, looking into the eyepiece. Water seemed to be running out of it, like it was crying, but the star shape that replaced the normal glow that came from a Dalek was very strange indeed.

"What is that?" she asked. She didn't even look up as Nardole came running up to them, terrified as always over the Dalek.

Danni had seen many things over her long life. She had seen supernovas and lizard men, and blue grass and crystal moons. She'd travelled across universes. She'd heard maddening noises and pure evil monsters. She lived in an impossible blue time machine, with an impossible man. But still, as she watched Bill say goodbye to the girl she liked, she knew she had only scratched the surface of it. There was so much more out there, and she had no chance of seeing even a fraction of it. It was a beautifully sad thought. Much like watching Bill say goodbye.

The Doctor walked off, leaving her to seemingly cry and there would have been a time when Danni would have stayed behind to comfort her. She just followed him to the TARDIS, though. "Now what?" she asked him lowly. "She knows too much already."

"I know, I'm working on it," he told her.

Danni glanced up at her husband, who wasn't looking at her at all. "She can't stay," she told him and he nodded. She grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop whilst Nardole and Bill caught up. She shot him an apologetic look; she didn't want to be the bad guy. "Theta, she can't."

He gave her that soft, gentle smile that always reassured her. "I know," he promised. "I'll sort it." He grinned. "Don't you trust me?"

"Sometimes, yeah," she replied cheekily and he shot her a look.

"Now, that's just not nice," he scolded playfully. "We're in a middle of a warzone and you're taking shots at my character."

"I'm not taking shots at your character," Danni replied as the Doctor frowned. His pocket was, rather unexpectantly, warming up as the psychic paper decided that he had a message. "I'm just stating a fact."

He reached into his pocket, turning to hide the fact he was checking the message. "So you say," he said, flipping it open to read it. "Nardole! Hurry up!"

Danni knew he thought he was being sneaky, turning his body so she couldn't see him opening up the psychic paper wallet, but it was plainly obvious what he was doing. "Theta," she started in warning. "You said…"

He flopped it back closed with a snap. "It's fine, everything is fine," he quickly dismissed in a voice that suggested nothing was fine at all. He also grabbed hold of her arm. "We're just going to go for a very quick run to the TARDIS," he continued before looking over his shoulder. "Nardole! Bill! _Now!"_

_~0~0~0~_

Danni still didn't know how she felt about a student being sick being able to trigger the alarms on the Vault. On one hand she had been _incredibly_ relieved that all it had been was some poor bugger having a rather eventful evening, but on the other she'd been so concerned that she had almost emotionally crashed out when she'd found out it was nothing at all.

Nothing like thinking a trip out had been the cause of a monster getting loose to really get the hearts pumping.

The Doctor had said he was going to deal with Bill, and Danni had no reason not to believe him. She knew that he understood the severity of their responsibility and, although one of the things that had attracted her to him had been is childish disregard, he knew he would never shrug this off. For as much as he thought Missy was redeemable, he knew that it was risk he was taking. He had been the one to spare her life. He had been the one to make the promise.

After all, Danni had wanted to kill her. She still did. She still didn't understand what the Doctor saw in her because she had been with Missy up close and personal. Nothing could save her. The Doctor was just going to get his hearts broken by her.

The door opened and, as she had expected, the Doctor walked in looking as world-weary as she'd expected him to. Bill was just another way that Missy was hurting him. In any other circumstances Danni knew he would have offered her another look at the universe. Missy meant that he couldn't. No matter how much Danni didn't want another companion – Clara's wound was still too large for her to even contemplate another one – the Doctor did. He thrived on having someone to show off to and, sometimes, he just needed a friend. Not a wife, who loved him and helped him by being someone to impress, but just a friend. She just wished that it could stop there.

He looked old. Well, no, actually he always looked old. He looked ancient. The weight on his shoulders could weigh him down sometimes. "I couldn't do it," he told her apologetically. "I tried to wipe her memory of today but I couldn't."

Bill had, quite rightly, challenged him on his plans to wipe her memories. Immediately, as he'd reached out to her temples, he'd been reminded of Donna, who had begged him not to do the same. He had hated doing it then and he was hating having to do it now, but he would. It was for the best. It would keep everyone safe.

It wasn't until Bill had asked how he would feel that his thoughts had fallen onto his wife. Watching her knees give way, the feeling of dead weight in his arms, as she told him that she just didn't want him to have to bear the pain of wiping her memory.

He'd told Bill to get out, becoming more and more upset until she had run away and he had been left alone with his pain. He never wanted to be the cause of someone losing a little part of themselves because of him. He knew Danni was going to be mad, and upset, and probably blame him for it. He just couldn't be that man again.

He hadn't expected her nose to wrinkle slightly. "Well, no, of course not," she replied like the very idea was idiocy. He looked over at her, baffled. "You're a good man, Theta. I don't know why you keep expecting that to be something you could do again."

She walked over to where he'd stopped at the railings. "Plus, it's still a ridiculous idea," she continued. "I mean, just because she's forgotten you doesn't mean that the universe will forget that she did, at one point. At least if she remembers us if something did notice, she's got a much better chance of defending herself against it if she knows what she's fighting for."

"But-But you told me to deal with her!"

"Yeah, like make sure she knows this isn't going to become a regular thing," she explained. "That she doesn't go interfering with the Vault. You know, _that_ kind of deal with her." She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Did you really think I wanted you to wipe her memory? Me?"

It _was_ a stupid thought, really. And the look on his face told her that he really had thought that. She shook her head and sighed. "Honestly, you really do like playing into the old fool stereotype, don't you?" she teased him lightly. "I would never want you to bear that."

He chuckled. "What would I do without you being here, my Pet, to tell me how stupid I am?" he asked her.

"I have no idea, but I would have a lot more time on my hands," she replied. "I wouldn't know how to fill it. I could write a book. Finally learnt to knit, maybe?"

Her soft smile was wonderful because he knew she didn't share it with people often anymore. "I'm sorry I went off world without letting you know," he told her. "And I'm sorry that, potentially, I left you alone with Missy."

The smile fell for a moment as she pressed her lips together in thought. "I don't know why you keep thinking she'd redeemable," she told him honestly, yet again. "She's not. She's never going to change."

"I'm making some real progress," he promised her. "I think she will be able to see the error of her ways."

"That's the problem, she genuinely believes she's not done anything wrong," Danni insisted. "And if she is acting like she does, then that's all it is; an act. Some people are just beyond redemption."

Her words were heavy and he knew exactly what she was implying. It was one of the reasons that Missy was still alive in the basement of a university in Bristol. "Not everyone, though," he told her.

"Hmm," was her reply because she didn't believe him at all. Instead she reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone and ending the conversation. She quickly checked the time before pocketing it again. "Now, I actually _do_ have some work to do in the library," she stated before taking his face in her hands. She had the smile back on her face. "Do you think you can leave off discovering alien invasions for another hour?" she asked.

"I'm sure I can manage," he replied, a little grumpy. She leant up and pressed a kiss on his lips. He caught her lips for one more.

"I won't be long," she promised. "Keep an eye on Nardole. I think the Daleks might have spooked him."

"I'll lay some newspaper down, then, should I?" he asked, mocking the other man. Danni shot him a look over her shoulder as she grabbed her bag and coat from the pilot seat. The Doctor frowned; how long had they been there? Had he just missed them the _entire_ time?

"Be nice," she warned. "He's not a dog. Dogs are smart."

He watched her leave, wondering if he should follow her for one more kiss. That was the theme of the night, if he was honest with himself. One more.

One more kiss before she left.

After his first wife he'd not even thought about finding a love of his own. He'd gotten one more chance there.

Missy was deserving of one more chance. Danni deserved one more too, even if she couldn't see it.

And heading home from what had to be the craziest night of her life, Bill deserved one more chance at seeing something amazing after all that she had lost. Poor Heather. He hoped she got one more chance, as well.

He looked up at the TARDIS time rotor and sighed heavily to himself. He just wanted one more. One more trip, one more adventure. Seeing _one more _new planet, one more new species.

He headed to the console, putting the TARDIS into flight.

Just one more.

_~0~0~0~_

_Hi! Sorry for the long break, I hope you don't mind too much! I did update the Time Child with some more of the rewrite, though, so I hoped that kept you occupied :P_

_I don't have much to report, so onto reviews!_

_**Jedi** **Master** **Albus** \- Oh, definitely not. Who doesn't love Twelve?_

_**Sophia** **Lilia** \- Why thank you, I think :P I hope I can keep your attention with my less-than-ideal update schedule._

_**Psst** \- You're very welcome! Hope you like this one :D_

_**sketchtheunicorn** \- I know, I saw your reviews :P Trust me, I'm the first to say how awful the first few stories are. It's been six years, that's all I can offer but I'm glad you stuck through to here. I am trying to rewrite the original trilogy, though, in the hopes of bringing some sense to it. After all, I know if I saw it for the first time I'd not make it through the first couple of chapters._

_**Guest** \- Why thank you, sweetie! I hope you like this one too!_

_**silasargent123** \- I think she understands more than she lets on. She misses travelling and having a friend as much as he does, I just think she'll struggle to admit it more._

_**bored411** \- No, not really, was she? I hope you liked it XD_

_Also a special shoutout to **Bolonka**, who must have given me my longest review to date, and probably one of the nicest! I'm glad I managed to change your mind, and I really don't mind the long review. Honestly, it made my day :D_


	4. Consequences

Having watched a _lot_ of television in her time, Danni had noticed that there had been a trope where a couple would sit in bed at night and talk about the issue of the day. She'd never really got it – there were so much better things to do in bed other than talk – but it seemed prevalent and she'd sometimes wondered if she had been missing out on something.

Of course, it didn't really help that the Doctor didn't sleep half as much as she did. It would seem the most human part of her that kept clinging on was her sleeping habits.

She glanced at the Doctor, sat in his pyjamas with her glasses perched on his nose, and realised that, somehow, they'd managed to fall straight into a television show. It was a funny thought, really, considering how she had come to know him in the first place.

She looked down at her own book and the technical drawings that were on the page. She had managed to stumble upon a history of various technologies of Gallifrey other than TARDIS's, which had turned out to be rather interesting. As much as the human side of her wanted to sleep, there was also a large part of her that wanted to know more about the history that the other part of her shared with her husband.

"Theta?" she asked.

"Mmm?" he replied, licking his finger before turning the page. Her nose wrinkled slightly; she _hated _that. It was a disgusting habit.

"Do you think I should get a friend?"

He blinked, slightly surprised. He had known that Bill's words had been bothering her for the last few days, it was why he had been a bit reluctant to bring up his trip out with her even though he knew he had to tell her. Still, though, he had thought she'd ponder on it for a bit longer then dismiss it. She'd been rather against the whole 'friend' thing for a while now.

Since Clara.

"Ignore Bill," he told her, going back to his book. "She just says things before she thinks. Questions spew out of her mouth like she had no filter. You get used to it."

"Yeah, but, that's the thing," Danni replied, turning slightly on the spot so she could face him better. "If she's not thinking then she's noticed it without paying attention, which means she's probably not the only one. Who else has noticed that I don't really interact with anyone but my professors? Who else has noticed, well," she motioned between them both, "_this_? What if I'm blowing our cover because I'm being antisocial?"

He wasn't sure how he felt about their entire thousand-and-then-some-year relationship being boiled down to a hand gesture and a pointed word, but seeing her getting worked up over something she'd obviously built up in her head reminded him that she was just projecting, not that she actually meant it. Much like he adored her, he knew that she loved him just as much.

"You do have friends," he reminded her. "They're just not all right here at the moment, it doesn't mean they don't exist."

"It does to people who _are_ here now," she pointed out.

"And you have Nardole," he continued before pulling a face. "Oh, I see your point."

She sent him yet another look. "Leave Nardole alone," she scolded yet again. "But, yes, he doesn't count. He's only here because my mother thinks I can't look after myself. That's like a kid only playing with you because their parents told them to. It's not the same as someone _actually_ liking you."

The Doctor sighed heavily. "People like you," he told her. "I think you're looking too much into things."

Danni didn't reply for a moment; she just pressed her lips together. Maybe he was right, maybe she was just worrying too much over things because suddenly everything had changed. With Bill knowing about them, it just opened the door for more people to know who they were and that, in turn, opened up the possibility of more people leaning about Missy. And that _terrified_ her.

But she still couldn't help but feel like Bill was onto something. She had, rather a long time ago, managed to wrangle it so she didn't have to do group assignments in an actual group, and no one ever approached her to join theirs. She didn't talk to anyone outside of class, she never went to bars or pubs. She'd never participated in any of the clubs, or even a pub quiz. In fact, apart from actually being in class with them, she didn't interact with the students at all and they didn't seem to miss her either.

Which, to be honest, felt like a little bit of a blow to her self-esteem. This regeneration had been a hard one for her, she had never really grown to like herself like she had been told would happen. She still felt like she was hiding in a body that didn't belong to her, that her personality was one she was mimicking rather than one she liked having. But it was one thing not liking yourself, and quite another having no one else like you either.

"Yeah, you're probably right," she eventually agreed. "I'm just overthinking it."

She went back to her book and tried not to think much more on it. But she couldn't help it. Bill's words echoed in her mind. If people didn't like her, then maybe there really _was_ something wrong with her. Everyone used to love her, after all. When she was blonde, she had managed to make friends just by being in the same room, now she just saw a room full of people. Had she really regenerated grumpy? Like some old person walking down the street, glaring at all of the 'youths'.

Her eyes widened slightly. Oh god, she'd regenerated _old_.

She turned the page forcefully. She would_ not_ be old. She could be friendly. She would be _amazing_ at being friendly. The humans wouldn't know what had hit them.

_~0~0~0~_

Danni loved the TARDIS so much. She loved that she could travel in her, that she could go anywhere and anywhen in the blink of an eye. She loved the fact that she housed _everything _inside of her, so she never found herself wanting. She loved waking up in bed in her and knowing that she was in a TARDIS, their TARDIS, _her_ TARDIS. It was just a great way to spend the day.

She also was a great way to regulate the days, because when a night lasted twenty-four years there wasn't a 'day' and it made it very hard to be on a proper schedule. And although she didn't sleep a lot anymore, she still needed it.

She usually took her time to wake up. She still had to make sure she was safe and in the bed she'd gone to sleep in – that was habit she'd had since before she had regenerated, so she doubted it would go away anytime soon – but she would stretch and sigh to herself. Her bed was fucking _comfy!_

Of course, some days she had stuff to do. And other days she had things she _wanted_ to do. And, some days, like today, Danni was out of bed almost as quickly as she had opened her eyes.

Today was the day her father was coming.

She was quick to dress and quick to run down the hallway to the console room, where she took a moment to compose herself before entering. She didn't want anyone to know she was _too _excited, after all. She had an image to maintain.

She paused slightly, pouting, when she found no one in the console room. She'd, at the very least, expected the Doctor there to greet her. And yet there was no one. It was a little disappointing, if she was honest with herself. She liked to be greeted in a morning. It made her feel important.

She assumed that it was because the Doctor was preparing for Jack's arrival, and as she exited the TARDIS into the small back yard, she realised that she was indeed correct.

"Just make sure that he holds on," the Doctor was saying.

"I know what I am doing," River snapped back. "We both know what we're doing. You're not the only time traveller, you know."

"I know that," the Doctor said back, just as angrily.

"And you're not the best. So let me handle it."

Danni watched the Doctor nod along, as if he was agreeing before he reached out to grab River's manipulator off her arm. "Maybe I should just…"

River snatched her arm away. "No," she told him firmly, like he was a dog trying to steal her food. "We decided that _I'm_ the one going to fetch Jack, not you. Calm down."

The Doctor pouted. "I don't see why," he grumbled. "It would be a lot easier in the TARDIS."

"Yes, and also the best way to have you miss by several hundred years and leave us here to rot," River retorted.

"Yeah, let's not do that," Danni drawled as she joined them both. She tried to keep her cool, but she still grabbed the Doctor's arm and hugged it tightly. "How about we curb the fighting, as well? I'm not going to last twenty-four years of you two bickering."

"We're not bickering," the Doctor retorted before waving River away. "Go on, then. Go fetch Flash. Although he does like me better, so he might not come with you."

"He'll come with me because I am the mother of his child, which means he will always like me more than you," she pointed out. She shot Danni a little wave. "Won't be long."

Danni really was trying to keep calm, but for the whole ten seconds that River was gone her hearts raced in her chest with excitement. She really did feel like a child waiting on their birthday for their biggest present, which she was sure was more telling about her than anything else.

Then River reappeared, Jack on her arm and Danni's face broke out into the biggest grin it had in a long time. Jack, as always, was taking the change of scenery in his stride. He was a little older than she'd expected, with grey hair and rather a few lines, but she should have guessed that River would have picked up an older Jack so she would look younger than he did.

Not that she cared, though. She just chucked herself at her father like a child who hadn't seen him in _forever_ and wrapped him into a tight hug. "_Dad!"_

"Woah, there!" Jack laughed, slightly winded by his grown daughter tackling him. "Take it easy, sweetheart."

She backed up and tried to act guilty, but she was just so relieved that her family was with her, and she could remember how he looked and how he sounded that her smile didn't drop. "Sorry," she told him. "I'm glad you could come. We've got you a small house, I hope that's alright. You could stay on the TARDIS, but I thought you'd be less likely to see something you'd not like."

He'd heard many stories about the Doctor and Danni, and nodded his agreement almost immediately. "I do appreciate that," he told her. "Although I do have more questions about how you managed to get me a house at all."

"Oh, I just tell everyone you're my dad, and I can get pretty much anything I want," Danni told him before frowning slightly. "I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"The same as I feel about hearing about you and the Doctor," Jack replied before holding his hand out to the Doctor. "Long time, Doc," he greeted.

The Doctor took it, giving his hand a tentative shake, as if he was remembering Jack hitting him with it. They actually looked closer in age then he and River did these days.

Her husband looked the same age as her dad. Even though their family was all kinds of messed up, Danni still found that rather unsettling and also really amusing.

"I hope you like your new home," the Doctor replied. "It's no 'Face-of-Boe' grandeur, but it is rather quaint."

Jack ignored the slight, knowing it was because the Doctor was strangely jealous of him. He couldn't blame him; the Doctor had never been bad looking, but, really, Jack knew what a catch he was. Plus, he had been told that he wasn't particularly picky, but his daughter was definitely one line he would never cross. It was just fun to tease him with it.

"I'm sure I can make it my own," Jack retorted, giving his hand one first shake for good luck before letting it go. Danni's eyes immediately lit up.

"Oh, oh, I have just the thing for that!" she cried. "River will show you in. It's just there," she pointed to the house behind them, which apparently owned the small garden they were in, "hers is next door."

She dashed off in a flurry in excitement and Jack waited until the TARDIS door shut behind her before turning to the two people left with him. "What's wrong?" he asked, immediately being able to tell. It wasn't exactly her behaviour – although, he could tell just by _how_ excited she was to see him – but there was something in the air around him that he could feel. The Doctor had shaken his hand.

River and the Doctor shared a look. Neither of them had been sure whether to warn Jack before he came, or take him to the side once he'd settled in.

River cleared her throat. The Doctor obviously wasn't jumping in to tell Jack, which meant it was up to her. "She wiped Clara from her memory," she explained. "And she's been struggling to come to terms with it."

The Doctor snorted. "Struggling?" he retorted. "Last week she stabbed a guy and left him for dead. That's more than struggling."

"Well, maybe if _you_ had been taking better care of her…"

"Me? You're the one who dragged her into your boyfriend drama."

"How dare you?!" River exclaimed angrily. "He was my husband."

"No, the diamond was your husband," the Doctor snapped back in return. Jack rolled his eyes. He had agreed readily to spending some actual, living, real-time life with his daughter. It was seemingly becoming more and more of a bad idea. He didn't even have time to process the information he had been given before he was trying to separate the two.

"Danni's coming," he hissed and, worryingly, instantly they stopped fighting. They were obviously trying to behave in front of Danni, that was never a good sign.

The young-looking women rushed out and over to them, tablet in hand. She all but thrusted it at her father. "Here!" she said happily. "I was in the library yesterday and I found the latest Kerblam catalogue."

The Doctor groaned loudly. "Oh no, not that," he moaned like someone was making him eat his vegetables. "Not Kerblam."

"Oh, stop it," Danni scolded. "They've upgraded to same-day delivery in this quadrant."

"You say that like it's a good thing."

River frowned. "What's wrong with Kerblam?"

"Nothing," Danni replied. "He just hates the Kerblam man."

_~0~0~0~_

It was strange to be nervous. Danni felt like she was back in her first day of university, back when she and the Doctor had first decided to hide out in Bristol. She was super aware of how everyone might suddenly turn around, mid-class, and all point at her at once shouting '_alien!_' at the top of their voices.

Because, obviously, she lived in a children's television show.

While, realistically, she knew that no one was going to figure out why she was really at the university, much less call her out on it, she still felt like her hearts were going to burst out of her chest as she slid into her chair near the back of the lecture hall. Not too far back, not too far forward. Pretty average. She normally sat in a similar place, but it felt a bit more calculated this time around. The perfect place to not be noticed by everyone, but maybe by someone.

The hall slowly filled up and, soon enough, a lad slid into the chair next to her. He was talking animatedly with his friend. Again, she always had people sitting around her, but this time she was more aware of it. With no one on her other side, this was going to be the guy she was going to try talking to. He laughed, relaxing into his chair as he pulled out his notebook. She did the same.

How did people do this? Making friends was _hard_.

He glanced to his side, giving her a nod in greeting and she did the same in return, hopefully not in a creepy way. She could talk to him. He seemed nice. A little young, maybe, but then again she was rather old so what did that matter?

Before she could say anything, though, he leant towards her. "Danni, right?" he asked and she immediately nodded in response to hiding her concern that he already knew her name. "You're in the Doctor's class too, aren't you?"

"Yeah," she said, trying to sound a little dismissive so he didn't know how much that concerned her as well. Had _he_ noticed her and the Doctor? Was this going to be another Bill scenario?

"Do you have _any_ idea what he talks about? Because, to be honest, I have no idea," he replied. "It's like he just makes it up as he goes along, and then we're supposed to write essays on it. Honestly, I think I'm just going to fail, but you seem really smart so you must know."

She smiled slightly, realising that he was just rambling and had no idea who she or the Doctor were. "I wouldn't say that," she said. "It must take a lot of planning to be _that_ off topic."

He chuckled slightly. "Not jumping in to deny the 'smart' observation, are you?" he asked and she shrugged.

"Can't deny what's true," she said as modestly as she could. Again, he laughed and she straightened slightly. She was _on top of this_!

The teacher walked in at the bottom of the room and everyone began settling down. She took her chance. "I can help, though, if you like," she offered. "I tend to be in the library most nights, just drop over if you see me."

The guy nodded. "Will do," he agreed. "It's Kyle, by the way."

She smiled again. "Alright, _Kyle_," she replied before getting ready to take her notes. Her smile didn't drop, or stop being a little smug. She didn't know what Bill was talking about, she could _totally_ make as many friends as she wanted.

_~0~0~0~_

"You know, I am incredibly rich, we could have bought it already built," Jack said as he looked around the mountain of boxes that had appeared in the modest kitchen of his new home. They had all been delivered by numerous, rather creepy, robots that made Jack instantly understand why the Doctor hadn't liked them; the Kerblam Man was really rather sinister.

Danni's head appeared from behind one of the larger boxes. "What's the point of pre-built furniture?" she replied, confused at the very idea.

"Sitting, sleeping, eating off… You know, the usual things you do with, or on, furniture."

She didn't look particularly impressed with any of his suggestions. "The fun of furniture is building it," she told him factually. "And just because you're rich doesn't mean you have to lose that." She stood up and, once again, he couldn't help but smirk in amusement at her outfit. He never thought he'd see her in dungarees, but apparently they were appropriate attire for building the interior of a house. She placed her hands on her hips as she surveyed the job ahead. "It should only take a couple of days," she told him. "Not long at all."

"And where am I supposed to sleep while this is happening?" he asked her. She stared at him for a moment, lips pressed together, before nodding once.

"We'll build the bedroom first," she declared before climbing over the box she was stood by. "One of these has to be the bed."

When the order has come, River had very loudly told them all that she wasn't going to be having any part of him building his home and had walked out to spend some time on her own. The Doctor had, mysteriously, disappeared the moment the robots had appeared and had yet to reappear, so Jack assumed that it was just going to be him and his daughter for the foreseeable future. So, he started looking too.

"So, you're a DIY-er, now?" he asked her and she shrugged, picking up a smaller box before moving it out of her way.

"I guess," she offered. "I really like putting things together. I'm still getting—" She picked up another box, turned it upside down, and also discarded it. "- my head around more complicated things, but I'm really into building furniture right now. Every time I put something together the TARDIS takes it and replaces it with something new for me to build." She paused. "I'm not sure where the old ones go," she said, as if she'd just realised that. "Perhaps I should find them."

"And do what?" Jack countered jokingly. "I thought built furniture was boring?"

She opened her mouth to protest, but quickly realised that they were her own words and that they were right, so she shrugged it off. "I've been trying to learn more about the circuitry of the TARDIS," she explained. "I can fix a lot, but I don't really understand what I'm doing, but all of the TARDIS manuals and books are really old and dusty and, therefore, really _dull_."

Jack watched her grin as she pulled a large box up off the floor, grunting slightly as she did. "Found it!"

"The bed?" he asked and she shook her head.

"No, the wardrobe," she replied, as if that had been what she had been looking for all along. "That's part of the bedroom, so the bed can't be far away."

He wasn't sure how she'd managed _that_ piece of logic, but he continued searching for the bed frame. "I could show you, if you want," he offered. She paused and looked over at him.

"Really?" she asked and he nodded. She smiled. "That would be awesome. The Doctor's tried, but I don't think _he_ can keep up with how his brain works sometimes. He's brilliant, but the way he makes connections can sometimes leave me behind."

"Some father-daughter bonding?" he said.

"Working over a car?" she joked. "Trying to change the oil?"

He chuckled. "Just a bit more exciting," he agreed. He watched her continue for a little longer, sorting the boxes as she was going, although he wasn't sure what her sorting system actually was. She seemed fine, muttering to herself as she read the labels on the boxes, but he could see the hyper-focusing for what it was.

"When do you want to talk about Clara?" he asked.

Her happiness fell for just a moment and she looked down at the empty photo frame she'd picked up. She stared at it, brows furrowed, trying to bring up a picture of the other woman in her head. Something to fill the photo frame, and yet there was nothing. No face, no happy memories, no pain. Just… nothing.

"Not yet," she said softly and Jack nodded, accepting her answer.

"Did you remember to bring any tools?" he asked. "When I packed, I didn't expect to be working."

Danni shot him a look. "I ordered you some," she explained. "There was this great 326-piece set that looked amazing."

"Do you know _where_ it is?" he asked, already knowing the answer. She paused, looking around the room.

"Um…"

_~0~0~0~_

"Look, there she is. Come on."

The chair next to her was pulled out almost immediately and Danni looked up from her book to see Kyle grinning at her happily. The chairs around her and him were also quickly filled with a bunch of other students and suddenly she felt rather ambushed and surrounded.

"H-Hi?" she started, a little unsurely. Immediately she wondered if she'd made a mistake engaging with the young man in class. What if they all were there to ask her about the Vault? What if they all knew about Missy?

"Are you busy?" he asked and she shrugged.

"I was just reading, nothing special," she replied, lifting the book slightly.

One of the women leant forward, dipping her head so she could see the title. "_Classical Electrodynamics,"_ she read off and Danni nodded. "You're just… reading that?"

She wasn't sure why the other woman sounded so confused and she looked at the cover. "Well, yeah," she replied, wondering if it was the wrong answer. "I thought I'd read something a bit easy before heading home. It's a bit simple, but I think he explains some of the principles rather well, even if it is a bit Kindergarten."

"Easy?" another young man repeated, while Kyle looked incredibly smug.

"Didn't I tell you? She's like, Hawkins smart," he told them all before turning to Danni. "We're off to do a pub quiz, wanna be our eighth member?"

Danni wasn't quite sure what happened. On one hand, she felt like them coming over purely because she was smart didn't exactly lend itself to a good foundation to build a friendship on, and rather seemed like something a high-schooler would fall for. On the other hand, she found herself nodding her agreement.

"Sure, why not?" she replied. "I've never done a pub quiz before; it might be fun."

Kyle nodded. "Oh, it'll be more than fun. Coming out with us is like, an adventure," he declared. "Bold moves, answering riddles on a quest of self-discovery, friendship and hope, with glorious and bountiful rewards meeting us on the other end."

"Oh, so you win a lot?" she asked.

"Not once," Kyle replied happily. "But we tend to get hella drunk—"

"Stop saying 'hella'," one of his friends told him as if he'd told him a million times before.

"- because drinks are always half-off tonight," he continued. "And what's a good night if not a pissed night?"

Danni couldn't argue with his logic, mainly because she wasn't sure where it came from, so she just nodded along. "Alright, well, give me a minute," she told him, standing up. "Let me call my husband, tell him I'll be late home." She headed off to call the Doctor, missing one of his mates clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"Ouch, married," he teased lightly. "All that wasted effort, dude."

Kyle shrugged him off. "Don't be gross, dude," he retorted. "She's always on her own, I'm just-I'm just offering an olive branch, you know? Being kind to my fellow man."

His friend, Sarah, snorted. "Yeah, right," she scoffed. "We all can see into your head, Kyle. You're already planning on how you can be the guy who saves her from her marriage, swooping in at the last moment. You pretend you're all Lord of the Rings, but really you're just a walking, talking Mills and Boon book."

Of all the things that had every been said to him, nothing had offended him more. "Mills and Boon?" he exclaimed. "How dare you? I'm much more chick flick than novel, thank you very much!"

Danni missed this entire conversation waiting for the Doctor to pick up the TARDIS phone. "_Don't tell me you got lost," _he teased her. "_I know books are your kryptonite, but the library really isn't that big._"

"I'm not lost," she retorted. "And if I was, I'd call Nardole, not you. Last time it took you twenty minutes just to find the library."

"_I told you, I thought you meant the library on the TARDIS, not the university. I still don't understand why you just don't use ours. She can create any book you will ever need_."

"Because if I'm there, you'll just distract me, obviously," she told him, knowing he couldn't deny it as it had happened on more than one occasion. "I'm going to be a bit late tonight. I just didn't want you to worry."

"_Why? You're not reading those Brian Cox books again, are you?"_

She chuckled to herself. "No, of course not," she promised him. "I'm just—" She glanced over at the group of students she'd managed to highjack a place in, and hesitated in telling him the truth. After all, it may just be a place on a pub quiz team. And, really, she wanted to prove to herself that she could make friends before she proved it to anyone else. "I'm just getting ahead with my English assignments, that way we can have the weekend off together," she said, feeling slightly guilty about the lie. "And, I don't know, maybe go to the coast for a couple of nights?"

There was a pause. "_You've been planning a weekend away?" _he asked her and she nodded to herself.

"Sure," she replied, as if the idea hadn't just come to her. It was a good idea, though. She could sort that out tomorrow. Weston-Super-Mare wasn't too far away. She could get them a hotel.

"_Without Nardole?_"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course without Nardole. I don't want him spoiling the mood," she retorted. "Anyway, I'll let you know when I'm coming back. I have my phone if you need me. Love you."

She almost skipped over to the group, her nerves really building up. She never used to feel like this when she met new people, she was sure of it. Then again, she never used to be so suspicious of everyone around her, and look where that got her? Captive, manipulated, with a monster in her basement and a smoking hot body.

Well, alright, not _everything _was terrible. But it still made sense that she was always a little nervous around other people. Even now, after all these years, she still had this niggle that no one was as they seemed. And, for the first time, she really wanted to get past that.

She smiled at Kyle, who almost jumped out of his seat the moment she returned. "Alright, let's go," she declared. "I have absolutely no idea where we're going, so lead the way."

_~0~0~0~_

It had taken Jack a while to get used to staying still. When he was younger, he would run around, looking for danger and adventure, usually with a small sense of trying to get himself killed despite the lack of ability he had in that regard. Slowly, though, he started to make peace with his lot. It still wasn't the best lot, but it was his and he could own it. And that, on some occasions, meant that he could settle down and live a few decades in the same spot doing mundane, normal, everyday things.

So it wasn't hard for him to settle into living in a small house, even if his daughter and her husband were living in the back yard, and his daughter's mother was living next door.

Alright, River living next door was proving to be rather difficult to handle. Luckily, as easy as it was for her to get a rise out of him, he could turn it around and do the same to her, which was proving to be a source of entertainment he hadn't been expecting.

For example, Danni had surprised him with a set of outdoor furniture and they were both sat in the garden, slowly drinking their way through a bottle of wine, listening to music and definitely _not_ talking about Clara. Or the man she had stabbed. Or Missy. Just light, non-conversation that they were both enjoying when River appeared from behind the fence that separated their houses.

"Can you turn it down?" she all but snapped.

He just raised a glass. She was probably annoyed because it was his day with their daughter. They had quickly come to the realisation that they just couldn't spend too much time together, so they were splitting Danni's time with them right down the middle. It was like being in a divorce, but without the happy marriage in between.

"It's not that loud," Danni protested.

"I'm surprised you can hear each other talk. I can barely hear myself think."

"Well, then, why don't you come join us?" Danni suggested to her mother, her eyes lighting up. "The Doctor will be here soon; he's just fixing the mess he made in the bathroom. It could be like a double date!"

River's face reflected the drop that Jack felt in his stomach at the very idea, but it also gave him the motivation to play right into the idea just to get on River's nerves. He chucked an arm around the back of Danni's chair. "Yeah, River, what do you say?" he asked. "I'm game if you are."

He made it sound like he was eager to do it, but River heard the challenge in his voice. "Fine, give me a moment," she grumbled, not willing to be the one who backed down first. She disappeared behind the fence again.

"You know, she's not going to enjoy this?" Jack asked his daughter, who sipped on the glass of wine she was holding.

"No, she will," she replied. "She thinks she hates being domestic but it's all she wants really. That's why she agreed to stay here in the first place." She shrugged to herself. "Well, that and the fact she's worried about me."

Jack watched her take another sip. It was the first time she'd acknowledged the fact that there was anything to worry about, and she suddenly was very pointedly not looking at him. "Why?" he asked. "Should she be worried?"

"I'm not worried," she replied before pointing her glass at him. "Perhaps that's why she's worried. Or why you're all worried."

"You killed someone," Jack reminded. She didn't question how he knew that – she must have expected them to have talked about her.

"I've killed a lot of people. I've done a lot of bad things," she said in return. "Does that worry you too?"

"We've all done bad things. If you're looking for understanding, you couldn't be in better company," he pointed out.

"Don't you think that's why I called you here?" Danni asked, much to his surprise. "It wasn't just so I could Parent Trap you, you know?"

His brows furrowed. "Parent Trap?" he repeated, confused and she smirked slightly.

"Never heard of it?" she asked and he shook his head. "Well, then, a lot of this is going to be _very_ new for you."

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor was getting worried. Nardole had tried to calm him down by telling him that his wife was the most sensible one out of the two of them, but that hadn't helped. It was very late, even for her and the ridiculous amount of time she liked to spend in the library reading. He didn't remember her other bodies being such bookworms, but then again she said she hadn't had much to do whilst being held by Missy other than reading, so he shouldn't have been so surprised.

Still, even for her, 1am was just a little too late for comfort. She was normally home by midnight, and if not she did let him know. Saying that she was going to be home 'a bit late' did _not_ encompass this late, no matter what Nardole said.

He had started to pace in his concern. He had tried to be calm, he had tried to be level-headed. He knew that Missy couldn't get out of the Vault without someone letting her out, he'd told Danni that a hundred times before. He truly believed that she was capable of redemption, she _had_ to be, but that didn't mean that he wasn't worried about her in the meantime. He just couldn't let Danni see that. He couldn't let _anyone_ see that.

What if she had, though? What if she had taken his wife yet again and he'd been too foolish to notice it?

"She's fine, sir," Nardole reassured him yet again, in a tired voice that said he'd had been going around and around in the conversation all night, which he had.

"You don't know that," the Doctor retorted. "She could be in terrible danger. How are you," he pointed at Nardole, "going to feel when we find her, injured and terrified?"

"If you're that worried, why don't you go find her?" Nardole suggested.

The Doctor shot him a look, as if he'd just proved his point. "Oh, so you _do_ think she's in terrible danger?" he accused.

"No, I think she's found a few books and hasn't realised the time," he replied, again tiredly. He typed a couple of things on the console of the TARDIS to bring up the readings from the Vault. "And the Vault is running as expected, just as it was ten minutes ago."

The Doctor opened his mouth to say something incredibly smart to put Nardole in his place, but the door opened to the TARDIS and they both froze, waiting for Danni to step in. She didn't. In fact, for a moment, nothing happened at all.

"_Theta!"_

The Doctor frowned at the loud call of his name before Danni did appear in the doorway. She leant against the wood like it was holding her up and his hearts skipped a beat; she was hurt. He should have gone looking for her. He should have.

"_The-eta_," she called again, stepping in with a bit of a stumble. She chucked her arms out to her side. "I have _returned!"_

That was when he noticed the badge pinned to her chest with a big '2' on it in bubble lettering. And the way she was slurring just slightly. He had been running towards her, ready to catch her and demand what had happened, but he stopped and stared, baffled.

"I think she's drunk," Nardole declared.

"Yes, thank you for pointing out the obvious," the Doctor retorted before turning back to his wife. "Have you been drinking?"

She nodded. "I-I wasn't planning on drinking, but then we came second and it felt rude to turn them down," she explained. She moved over to him, reaching out and almost collapsing onto him. "Did you know that Liza Minelli did a cover of Queen? How crazy is that?!"

The Doctor wasn't sure what to do with that piece of information. "I thought you were in the library?"

"Well, of course I was," she replied, pushing off him to stand up straight. "Then we went to the pub quiz, and we came second and we won a load of drinks and Kyle said that because I'd helped them get that far that I could choose the cocktails so I chose the blue one, and it was gross but _then_ he said they had Coke so I had vodka and Coke and it was a _lot_ nicer."

Again, the dump of information was rather a lot for the Doctor to take in. "Wait a minute; who's _Kyle?_" he almost demanded.

"He sits next to me in my- in my- in one of my lectures," she replied. "He invited me to join their quiz team, but then Sarah and Boyle went off together and he said that they always shagged when they were drunk, and then I thought of you and thought 'hey, that sounds fun', so," she grabbed hold of his shirt. "Let's do that," she declared before pulling him in for a kiss.

Nardole wrinkled his nose, while the Doctor fought his conflicted feelings at his wife being rather eager to kiss him, but also tasting like one of the local student bars. Instead he delicately detached her from himself.

"How-How about, instead, we go lie down?" he suggested. "It will help the world stop spinning."

She hadn't said it was, but the way she nodded suggested that he had been right to assume as much. "Alright, but you have to come with me," she commanded before she started towards the back of the console room. Her eyes lit up as she saw Nardole stood there, as if she'd just realised he was in the room. "_Nardole!"_ She stumbled over to him. "You have to come next time," she gushed, jabbing him multiple times in the arm. "I-I said that with you there that we were bound to win. You're so smart!"

"Yes, yes, he's a genius," the Doctor agreed, ushering her towards the hallway. "We can talk about that tomorrow."

She chucked her arms in the air. "I am the best friend _ever!"_ she cried. The Doctor looked back at Nardole, who looked just as bewildered as he felt, and could only offer him a shrug as an explanation.

The Doctor had dealt with drunk Danni in the past, on multiple occasions, but this Danni never seemed to be that way inclined. She had become a bit tamer in that regard, usually steering away from large gatherings or typical human 'partying' behaviour. He wasn't sure where her sudden delve into alcoholism has come from.

And who the hell was _Kyle?!_

_~0~0~0~_

_Sorry about the long break again. Hopefully, from now on, I'm going to be a bit more consistent._

_Reviews!_

_**bored411** \- I'm sure Danni will have a lot to say when she founds out about Bill. This time I'm wanting to do the companion thing a bit differently._

_**sketchtheunicorn** \- Why thank you :D As I was reading them come in I was definitely hoping you'd see it. Danni has been part of my life for a long time, now, so it's given me time to really get a hold of what I want from her. I'm really hoping I can tidy her up early on and get the whole story like I would like it._

_**Psst** \- I can totally see where you're coming from, and I do still have the old chapters backed up in numerous places, but I've gotten to the point where I know I can make it better, and saving that isn't a big priority, you know? It's not like I'm rushing to rewrite the whole saga before getting out new content, but revisiting it has proven to be rather fun :)_

_**Jedi Master Albus** \- I love Jodie, but I don't want to see Twelve go either, but I'm still not over the loss of Eleven so we'll see :P_

_**valeriefiction** \- Thank you :D_


	5. A Short Trip Out

Oh, she had forgotten what drinking too much had felt like. It was _not_ fun.

Danni rolled over, groaning and squeezing her eyes shut as she pushed her face into her pillows. She really hadn't intended on getting drunk the night before, but one thing had led to another and she barely remembered getting home. She felt like crap. The whole world was crap. She blamed everyone.

There was a low chuckle that, most of the time, wouldn't have bothered her. Now, though, it felt much too loud for the time of morning she was hearing it. "Theta, stop it," she warned. "When I can open my eyes, I will throw things at you."

"Good morning to you too, my Pet," he replied, highly amused. He didn't like his wife feeling ill at all, he'd never want that, but knowing it was self-inflicted did make it a little funny.

"Good? No morning is ever good," she muttered into her pillow. He smiled to himself; she can't have been feeling too bad, after all that would have been her normal reaction regardless of a busy night out or not.

"Well, true as that may be, we both have class."

That did not sound like something Danni wanted to even think about, so she shook her head into the pillow. "I'm not going to class," she told him bluntly.

He sat down on the bed next to her. "Your professor might not be too happy with that," he reminded, a little cheekily.

"My professor knows better than to wake me up after I've had a night out," she pointed out. "He knows to let me sleep it off."

He smiled to himself. She was aware enough to snap at him, which meant that she wasn't in too much pain from the night before. He could finally probe about the mysterious Kyle, who had taken it upon himself to get his wife ridiculously drunk. "I suspect he does," he agreed. "But he also knows that you tend to get rather annoyed if you are left to sleep in. You wouldn't want to keep Kyle waiting."

"Kyle can go suck my…"

"Danielle," he cut in and she rolled over, chucking her arm over her eyes to block them from the bright lights of their bedroom.

"It's just a saying, Theta. You know I only mean it when I'm saying it to you."

"You'll have to regenerate first," he retorted.

"With how I'm feeling right now, I'm pretty sure it's imminent," she said. "I don't remember hangovers being this bad."

"That's because you can't remember having a hangover," he reminded her gently before he pushed a small vial of purple liquid into her hand. It was what she called 'purple stuff', a solution that she was adamant cured hangovers. In fact, it was just fast-acting pain relief that gave her the capacity to get over the dehydration that drinking brought, but she had never wanted to hear the science behind it. It was magic, and that was all she cared about.

She popped the top and downed it in one, eyes still closed before she chucked it towards the bottom of the bed. She didn't hear a smash, which meant she'd hit her target and didn't hit the floor. That was actually a win for her, that was how bed she felt.

"I don't remember getting home," she told him. "Was I late?"

"Rather," he confirmed. "And when you realised that you'd said you were going to let me know when you were coming back, you ran out of the TARDIS to call me."

She groaned to herself. "Oh yeah, I remember that," she said. "Did I really invite Nardole on my next night out?"

"You did."

She groaned again. "That's going to be awful. Do you think I can get out of it?"

"I don't know, I think he's pretty excited," he teased. "He was doing that thing where he's either happy or confused." He wasn't telling the truth, of course. Nardole wasn't exactly someone who liked hanging around young humans, but if he couldn't tease his wife, then who could he tease?

"So, are you going to tell me what happened?" he asked her. She nodded before swinging her legs off the side of the bed and sitting next to him.

"Kyle sits next to me in one of my physics classes. He came to see me in the library and invited me to be on his pub quiz team with some of his friends, so I said yes."

"Did this team include the amorous Sarah and Boyle?"

Danni's nose wrinkled as she quickly remembered how _close_ the two had gotten before they'd disappeared off together. "Yeah…" she drawled. "Those two really embodied that stereotypical student thing of always being horny."

"You were in the right company, then," the Doctor pointed out.

Again, she suddenly remembered how she'd tried very hard to get the Doctor to come to bed with her. She shrugged. "Well, that's because you're delectable," she said as if he should have known better. "Next time regenerate unattractive."

"I'll do my best," he replied flatly. She shot him a smirk, already feeling better as the solution began to dull the pain.

"I think you did very well to resist me, though," she praised. "I mean, I don't think I could have resisted if I'd come at me like I was." She stood up, stretching slightly. "Where did my clothes go?"

"You originally chucked them across the room," he explained. "But I folded them up ready to be washed." He nodded to the small pile of clothing on top of the laundry basket.

"Thanks," she replied. "Give me five minutes and I'll get ready."

"Well, about that," he drawled before pulling her back onto the bed. "Your professor just cancelled the class. You've got a free period."

"Oh, do I?" she asked with a laugh. "Well, that's convenient, isn't it, professor?"

"Very much," he purred before she kissed him.

_~0~0~0~_

Bill was being nosy again. She knew she had a problem with it, but she couldn't help herself. She'd never understood how people couldn't be nosy. So much was going on in the world that the idea of ignoring it all seemed stupid to her. People like Moira, who _still_ hadn't noticed that she liked girls rather the guys, just went through life happy with what they knew. That wasn't Bill. She didn't understand a lot of things, but she wanted to know _all_ of it.

So when she saw Danni leave the Doctor's latest lecture being followed by a group of people, all chatting happily she just couldn't help but be drawn to it. It was new, and unusual, and therefore right up her alley.

She waited just enough to be out of the lecture hall before she began jogging. "Danni!" she called.

Danni paused in her step, almost wincing at the voice calling for her. Kyle looked at her, a little concerned. "Who is that?"

"Just Bill. I'd better see what she wants," she replied, trying not to sound too wary. "Go on, I'll meet you in the cafeteria. Save me a seat."

Kyle grinned, almost like he was relieved that she was still coming. "Do you want me to wait?" he asked.

"Nah, this isn't going to be interesting," she told him bluntly. He nodded and caught up with the rest of his friends as Bill caught up to Danni.

"Sorry, were you—" Bill started.

"You're making a habit of calling my name out in the hallway," Danni interrupted. "If you're wanting the Doctor, I'm not going to lunch with him today."

"Oh, no, I don't want to go to lunch with him either," Bill replied before realising what she said. "Not-Not that you don't _want_ to go to lunch with him. I didn't mean it like that, I just meant that, you know, I have a job at lunch. You know," she tilted her head to the side slightly, "I serve chips, so…"

Danni stared at her for a moment, expecting more to come but Bill just stared at her. "Well, what did you want, then?" she asked, hoping to move the conversation along.

"I just- I wanted to apologise. About all of the things I said," Bill told her. Which was true, because in her confusion and fear she'd said a lot of things without really thinking about it. "And look!" She waved down the hallway. "You do have friends, I was wrong."

"Have you- Did you stop me in the hallway to point out that I can, in fact, have friends?" Danni asked slowly and Bill cringed slightly.

"No, not like that," she quickly replied. "What I meant was that I said you didn't, but you do, and that's awesome. Real awesome." She nodded before her face lit up with happy realisation. "They look so much closer to your age. No one will notice you now!"

Danni would often say that she didn't like a lot of people, but really it was the fact that she very rarely had the patience for anyone but the Doctor – and possibly Nardole on a good day. If she took the time to get to know them, she probably wouldn't dislike most people. They were interesting, and funny, and it was hard to find someone she really disliked.

In that moment, she decided she was _never_ going to take the time to get to know Bill.

"I'm going now," she told Bill bluntly. "Please don't call my name in the hallway again. We're trying to keep a low profile, I don't need you alerting people to where we are."

She turned and started to walk away. "No, no, wait," Bill called after her, quickly running up to her. Danni sighed and turned, looking at her with a very annoyed expression. Bill couldn't blame her. Sometimes she just couldn't keep her foot out of her mouth, especially when she was feeling a little intimated. The look on Danni's face made her feel like a teacher was getting very exasperated with their student. "I didn't mean anything by that," she promised. "The Doctor can't stop talking about you, now that I know… well," she remembered just in time to look around, but no one was paying attention, "now that I know," she finished. "He kept going on and on about how you were trying to keep your family safe, and how you were being clever. Actually, he couldn't stop talking about how clever you were." Danni couldn't help smiling slightly, but caught herself and let it drop away. She didn't want Bill to know that it made her happy to know the Doctor didn't forget about her when she wasn't there. "He said that it was mainly because of you that you both have such a great gig now, and how you've taken to Earth so I understand why you weren't mingling, even though he said you would have _loved_ the new planet. It just… It felt a shame that you didn't want to have any friends…"

"Sorry?" Danni interrupted sharply. "New planet?"

Bill suddenly realised that she'd let her mouth run away from her again. "Oh, that…" She said slowly, trying to think up a lie. The Doctor had expressly told her not to mention their trip out to his wife before he'd had a chance to talk to her. "Oh, it was… I meant the end of the universe one," she quickly explained, hoping she would believe her. "The one where Heather… you know, that one?"

"Right…" Danni drawled before deciding she really needed to talk to the Doctor. She went to turn away and walk off, but looked back at Bill one last time. "The Doctor's going away this weekend, I'm sure he's not told you," she said. "Don't bother turning up on Friday, no one but Nardole will be there and he won't entertain you."

Bill watched her walk off and groaned to herself. She could be such an _idiot_ sometimes.

She thought about going to warn the Doctor as the university's clock bell rang and she realised she was late for work. She couldn't afford to lose her job, so she sprinted off and thought no more about it.

_~0~0~0~_

"This is our first holiday in seventy years, why are you trying to stop us going?" Danni asked her husband. He leant over one of the railings on the upper floor of the console room, book in hand, so he could look down at her.

"I'm not trying to stop us going," he replied, a little defensively. "You said we were going on the weekend. It's not the weekend."

"Friday is practically the weekend," Danni defended. "Neither of us have classes today, so it's the weekend."

To be honest, she was a little hurt that he was protesting so much. It was hard for her to surprise him with anything at the best of times, but she'd found the hotel and booked it herself, sorting out their dining and a couple of activities, like a proper weekend away.

And the Doctor was touched, he was, but he was still rather concerned about her. She had gone from not wanting to interact with people to having friends in a matter of days, and now after seventy years of adamantly staying in the same place, she wanted to suddenly go on a trip. He wasn't sure the sudden change was healthy as much as he had wanted it. Erratic behaviour was never a good sign and he just wanted her to be alright.

"I can't go today," he told her, watching her closely to see how relieved she looked. "We can go tomorrow, when I've tutored Bill."

"And I told Bill that you weren't here today, and that she would have to spend the time with Nardole if she turned up," she explained. "Because, to be honest, I didn't expect so much pushback for the idea."

His eyes widened slightly and he headed to the stairs. "No, no, that's not what I'm doing," he quickly told her before almost hopping down the stairs towards her. She supressed a smile; she could remember Eleven, with his gangly legs, doing the same thing while worrying his hands when he thought he'd upset her. "You've not wanted to leave the university in decades, I don't want you to rush out because you think I want to."

"I know that, sweetie," she replied. "And I appreciate it, but would I have booked it if I didn't want to go? Do you not know me like, at all?"

It was her cheeky look that really relaxed him, rather than her words. It appeared when she was flirting, or feeling smug, or when thought he was being an idiot; basically, it appeared when she was genuinely happy. He placed the book down on the console, ready for when he needed to give it to Bill.

"Alright, a weekend away it is," he declared. "How are we getting there? We're a bit of a walk away from the train station, but there is always Uber." He shot her his own smug look. "Yes, I know what Uber is. The students are well and truly rubbing off on me." He pointed to the door. "And leaving Nardole, right?"

"The checked trousers suggest otherwise," she teased. "Yes, we're leaving Nardole. Someone needs to look after the Vault while we're away. And we're taking the TARDIS, obviously."

The Doctor frowned. "Doesn't your servant need the TARDIS to take care of the Vault?"

"He's not my servant," Danni corrected. "He's my _mother's_ servant. And, one, if he calls us and says 'Missy's out of the Vault', I want to be able to get back as fast as possible. And, two, if he _does_ call us, I don't want his words to be 'Missy's out of the Vault and has the TARDIS'."

He couldn't argue with that logic. As safe and secure as he thought Missy was, he also wasn't keen on tempting fate that way. She still wasn't rehabilitated and he didn't trust her, for a moment, to not take one step out of the Vault, grab Danielle and run off again.

But he didn't want to ask about that. He wanted to know about their weekend away. He knew they were off to Weston-Super-Mare, but that was about it and now he knew she was happy to go, he realised he didn't know anything else and that was rather exciting. Their love of surprises was just another thing they had in common. "Should I ask when we're going?" he asked. "Or are you going to make me guess when we get there?"

She shook her head and, with a smirk, flipped a switch and sent them into flight. A moment later they landed with the small thud. She waved her hand at the door.

"I checked in earlier so we could just land inside," she explained.

"And you're letting me go out first?" he asked in reply. "I am honoured."

"So you should be," she retorted. He stepped out first and smiled to himself. The room was rather grand, with a large bed and full dining area. She'd obviously tried to find somewhere nice for him, and even though he didn't really care about where they stayed, it was nice to have a fuss made for him.

She stepped out after him, closing the door behind her. "There should be a beach view out of the window. I mean, I know Britain doesn't have the best beaches, but this one's actually really pretty."

She wasn't wrong. It was still just becoming spring, so the sky wasn't particularly sunny and he wouldn't have suggested a quick dip in the sea, but it had a nice charm to it. Perfect for a moonlight stroll later.

"You have, once again, outdone yourself my Pet," he told her, taking her hand to place a kiss on her palm. "Who thought Britain could be rather pretty?"

"You do realise just how much time you spend on this little island, don't you?" she replied as she threaded her fingers through his. "_I_ suggested somewhere warmer, with less rain."

She led him over to the bed, sitting on the edge and he sat next to her. When they were both younger, they spent a _lot_ of time hotel-hopping. He had enjoyed it immensely, and so did she if he remembered correctly.

And he did remember correctly.

"Warm doesn't always mean better," he pointed out. "We've been trapped on desert planets before, they're never any fun." She nodded but didn't reply, instead just smiled at him fondly. She had this way of looking at him, as if he was the only thing that could make her happy, which was both baffling and rather wonderful.

"What is it?" he asked and her smile faltered just slightly.

"I'm just remembering how lovely you look when you're happy," she told him. His brows knitted together in confusion. "I think we're about to get into an argument," she explained. "I don't want to, but I think it might happen."

"Oh?" he asked, a little apprehensive. "What makes you say that?"

"Because I know you took Bill on another trip behind my back."

The Doctor was suddenly hit with the panic he felt when he'd walked back onto the TARDIS, after taking Bill to the end of the universe, and saw his wife stood there. It was the same panic he'd feel as a child when he was caught in the TARDIS repair yards, or when he'd skip class to go running. Not a scared panic, but the panic of a child who was in a _lot_ of trouble with an adult.

He did, for a moment, consider trying to talk his way out of it, but he didn't particularly want to lie to her. He hadn't, really, wanted to keep it from her, he'd just not known how to break the news that he'd been on another trip without her.

It hadn't been an easy decision, either. It had taken him a few days of talking himself out of the idea before he'd given into temptation and flown back to the night he'd sent Bill away. He'd had a great time, even with the danger the trip had presented, but he'd missed Danni incredibly throughout it. One trip had been enough; he wasn't going again without her.

"How did you find out?" he asked her.

"Your companion decided to accost me in the hallway, again, to let me know that I did, indeed, have friends," she explained. "She said that you'd not stopped talking about me and that you thought I would have loved the new planet you'd been to."

He had noticed that Bill could talk for a while when she was nervous, that had become pretty evident when he'd first called her into his office. He hadn't expected her to just blurt it out, though. "Ah."

"Where did you go?" she asked. She sounded curious, and he wasn't surprised.

"The future. We were almost killed by robots that communicated entirely in those emojis you like to use."

"Good," she replied. "I mean, good that you weren't killed and good that you were _almost_ killed. It's a good punishment." He couldn't argue with that, so he didn't. "I'm going to say some things," she told him. "Then you are going to reply, and hopefully we'll both agree and we can avoid the argument. Agreed?"

He quickly nodded. "Agreed," he replied. He didn't mind her spelling stuff out for him. In fact, they had been together so long that a lot of the time he actively encouraged it. It was a good idea for both of them.

"I'm not happy that you didn't tell me," she started. "The first time, alright, fine, maybe I overreacted a bit because she was in danger and you couldn't exactly stop and give me a phone call. But you purposefully went on a trip without me, and left me alone with Missy, and I don't like that you were okay with doing that. I didn't want to keep Missy; I was _more_ than happy to let her die. That was your choice, and it's me who's in danger from it the most. You shouldn't leave me with her. It's not fair."

"You're right, it's not," he replied. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you beforehand, and then I didn't tell you afterwards."

"But," she continued. "I don't like the fact that being here is stopping you being who you are. I don't _want_ you to not travel the universe, I don't _want_ you stuck here, bored. I don't want to be the reason you don't get to be who you are. That's the man I fell in love with. I don't want you to change. And I _certainly_ don't want you to change because of Missy."

He frowned. "Wait, you _want_ me to travelling?" he asked and she nodded.

"Only one of us has to stay behind and make sure she stays exactly where she is. And, as you saved her in the first place because of me, I should be the one to stay behind," she reasoned. "I just-I just want you to come back to me, that's all. Don't stay away too long."

She had thought about it a lot. When Bill had actually spilled the beans, she had been angry and had been intent on finding the Doctor and confronting him, much like she had done the first time. Then she had come up with the great idea to bide her time and wait until they were on their mini vacation, where she could spring it on him and ruin his day, like the news had ruined hers.

But then she had thought on it some more, and she didn't feel angry, she felt jealous. She wanted to go out and see the universe again. She hated standing still, she always had. She blamed meeting the Doctor during her most influential years for it, but maybe it had been there all along, she wasn't sure. She just wanted to be out there, viewing the stars. But she couldn't bring herself to leave Missy alone. At least, if she knew where she was, she knew she couldn't sneak out and wreak havoc on anyone else.

That didn't mean that the Doctor couldn't do what they both did best, though. She didn't want to argue, or be unhappy. She didn't want either of them to be unhappy. So her anger, and her jealousy, turned into an acceptance. She just wanted him to be happy.

"Really?" he asked, a little sceptical and she couldn't blame him.

She nodded. "I don't want to fight," she said. "And I definitely don't want to fight over something that is my own doing." He tried not to smile, but couldn't help it. He wrapped her up in his arms and she laughed in surprise as he pulled her back on the bed. "_Theta!"_

"Oh no, you're not getting away that easily," he told her. "I knew I kept you around for a reason."

"Excuse me?!"

_~0~0~0~_

Nardole really hated being near the Vault. He'd never been _in_ it, thankfully, but being around it was enough to make him incredibly grateful that he didn't have to see the monster inside. He had heard only a fraction of what Missy had done and he wasn't inclined to spend any time with her. He was very happy keeping the metal door between them at all times.

However, having the responsibility of looking after the Vault, maintaining energy and other important levels to keep it running at full capacity did give him a sense of purpose he'd not had since his casino-robbing days. He felt incredibly important, and he enjoyed it.

Once he'd taken all the readings, adjusted the light to simulate the day-night cycle and locked up the basement, he headed up to the side room of the Doctor's office. It had been his one demand – after all, he didn't need sleep, or food. He just wanted a little place, out of the TARDIS, that was his own.

He sat down at his desk and picked up his headset before entering his password on the touchscreen. Just because they were stuck in the early 21st century didn't mean he was stuck with their technology.

The visor snapped down over his eyes and, for a moment, the room went blurry and would have made him feel slightly nauseous had he had a stomach. Luckily he adjusted as he reappeared in another room and he clasped his hands together as he waited. The room he'd appeared in was a rather old-fashioned living room, with extravagant furniture and a fireplace that was blazing and giving off a nice warmth.

He wasn't waiting long as the door opened and River stepped in, smiling at him warmly. "Nardole!" she greeted, sounding slightly surprised. "I thought I felt a shift in the system."

"I hope you don't mind me dropping in, Professor Song," he apologised. "I've got a rare weekend on my own, so I thought I'd come and report in."

"Of course not," she replied, sitting down on one of the ornate armchairs. "You know you can come to the Library whenever you feel like it."

Nardole took his job very seriously. Along with taking care of the Vault's day-to-day running, he had another, much more important task that had been given to him before Missy had even been caught. In the last days leading up to her death, River had taken him aside and asked him to keep an eye on Danni and the Doctor, making sure that even after she was gone, Danni was healing.

"Danielle, believe it or not, suggested a weekend away," he told her as she waved her hand and produced a tray of tea and cake. Even though he didn't need to drink or eat, he still took a cup. "It's just down the road, at a place called Weston-Super-Mare, but it's a big step for her."

"After only, what, a hundred years?" River asked before taking a sip of her own drink.

"Since you died, Ma'am, yes," Nardole replied factually. "She has also gained a gaggle of young humans who like to follow her around. They seem to think she's rather smart. Although," he looked a little unimpressed, "they are not the best influences. They took her to one of those student pubs, she came home in a right mess."

"She always was a rather enthusiastic drunk," River mused to herself. "But she's interacting with the locals, now?"

"It's very out of character. I wanted to give her a full physical, but the Doctor said that it was unnecessary and intrusive," Nardole replied. "He can build me a new body, but apparently taking her temperature was 'a step too far'."

"She's only acting out of character for this regeneration. Her other ones are ridiculously friendly," she explained with a small roll of her eyes. "It was so difficult going anywhere without her making friends with everyone she walked past. Stragglers were always part and parcel of the Danielle Fielding experience."

"Really?" Nardole asked, still looking unconvinced at the entire idea.

"Oh yes," River replied. "How do you think she managed to pick up the Doctor in the first place? He's the biggest hanger-on that she's ever had. I've been trying to get her to shake him off for _centuries._"

Nardole smirked slightly. "You know, there's rumours out there about you and the Doctor and how you two were once married," he stated. "It makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "About what?"

"Whether you really dislike the Doctor as much as you claim, or if really you're just jealous that he married your daughter and not you." He took a sip of his tea, trying to look innocent as River's face dropped to straight outrage.

Then she laughed, shaking her head. "Nardole, you've become positively sassy," she praised.

He straightened slightly, proud. "Upgrade, Ma'am," he replied. "Did it behind the Doctor's back. It took my natural charm and enhanced it. I'm thinking of adding a humour chip next."

"I don't think you could enhance that anymore," she replied. "What else has she been up to?"

"Well, she dropped one of her language courses. She said that the French teacher really wasn't from France as they claimed, but from the US. She said the accent gave them away. I looked into it, but I think it's just because they said she was conjugating one of her verbs incorrectly."

_~0~0~0~_

Evening turned out to be just as nice, if not nicer, than the beach during the day. The sand was slightly wet but it didn't matter much, because the lights from the town and the pier illuminated the sea beautifully. Hand in hand, the Doctor and Danni walked along the sand, ignoring the sound of life on the street above them.

"Of course, in the fertilizers were skulls," the Doctor told her. "The robots had been using the people to feed the farm."

"Which made the food both you and Bill ate?" Danni asked and he nodded.

"The robots thought that if you were unhappy, you had to die. So as they killed the crew…"

"The rest became sad, so they killed and killed until there was no one left," Danni finished for him. "And organic matter is an excellent fertilizer. So you had to escape, obviously. How did you manage that?"

"Well, my Pet, it was simple really," he boasted. "I had to blow the whole ship up."

"Naturally," Danni agreed. "You can't exactly leave a city ready to eat anyone who turned up lying around."

"Exactly," he agreed. "However, we found the rest of the colonists in cryogenic storage. Blowing _them_ up would have been a grave mistake."

"Not one you made though, right?" she pointed out. "Otherwise you wouldn't have brought them up in the first place."

"The humans wanted the kill the Vardy and all of their robot army as they'd killed all their friends, which was troublesome but not entirely surprising. So, to cut a long story short, I had to stop them too." She looked up at him, expectantly, and immediately he was in the part he loved; the part where he was the hero and saved the day.

They told a lot of stories to each other he had come to realise many moons ago. They loved to spin yarns and they loved to relive their glory days with each other, especially since they were currently grounded in Bristol of all places.

"It was the faulty programming of the Vardy and their robots that was the issue, so I just had to fix that. Of course, that would have taken too long and I'd have too many dead people on my hand distracting me to do it. So I pressed the reset button. The Vardy became the indigenous lifeforms and decided, completely coincidently, to charge the colonists rent."

Danni let out a burst of laughter. "So, one of colonists really pissed you off, did they?" she asked and the Doctor nodded.

"Bloody humans. They're always shoot first and maybe, perhaps, talk later."

She couldn't help but grin. She could always tell which part of an adventure had the biggest effect on him based on what she would tell him. He liked the technology, which was why he focused on the robots and not the humans. He hated the death, again why he focused on the robots and not the humans. And he, most definitely, suggested the rent to the robots, which meant someone had annoyed him but he was trying not to say.

"And what did Bill think about her first proper adventure into space? Did you scare her off for life?"

He wasn't sure if he should tell her that every evening since, Bill had asked to go on another trip. He believed her when she told him she was happy for him to go off without her, but he also didn't want to rub it in. He knew she missed it. They both missed it and telling her about how Bill had taken to the life of adventure seemed a bit cruel.

"I don't think I completely scared her away," he settled on. "I'm thinking of taking her somewhere I know next time, though. Somewhere calm and collected."

"You don't know the meaning of the words," she teased him. "You love the adventure, you always have."

"Better with two," he told her and she smiled warmly at him. He knew he didn't mean Bill, he meant her, and she appreciated it a lot. Ultimately, after all these years, she just wanted to spend time with him. She only wanted to travel if it was with him, and so going without him seemed so pointless, that was why she suggested him to go on his own without her. When she could, she'd go with him. Until then she was happy to stay at the university and wait.

She paused, looking up at the night sky. It was cloudy – nothing new there – and the wind was cold but calm so the cover wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Even with the moon shining from behind them, it looked so dull.

"You should take her somewhere with stars," she said softly. "There should always be stars."

He watched the sadness on her face, knowing that she was remembering every single time she sat in the doorway of the TARDIS, looking out into the universe. Or every time they stood on a beach and looked up at the sky, and saw a different one each time. She missed it as much as he did.

He took her other hand, turning her around. "I'm not going anywhere without you," he told her firmly, much to her surprise. "When you are ready we'll all go. You, me, and Bill and we'll see the stars. I can wait five hundred years for you to be ready."

And she knew that he genuinely meant it. The smile returned to her face as she turned on the spot so she could face him. "You sentimental old fool," she said fondly. "What would I do without you?"

As she leant up to kiss him – and he moved happily to meet her – her phone rang and she pulled away. Immediately worried it was Nardole with some terrible news about the Vault and Missy, she disregarded the moment and pulled it out.

She frowned at the name on the screen and answered it. "Hello?"

"_Fielding! Where are you?!_" Kyle called from the other side, obviously on his way to another drunken night. "_I need a partner so I can whip Boyle's arse at pool!"_

"I'm away for the weekend, remember?" she told him. "And I'm terrible at pool. You're better off without me."

"_Away? Boo!" _he replied before his voice turned fainter as he pulled the phone away from his ear. "_She's gone away!"_

She giggled at the collective sound of booing on the other side, proving that she was very much missed by the group. She looked up at the Doctor. "It's Kyle," she told him quietly. "Give me a moment."

She started walking away and the Doctor scowled, his mood immediately ruined.

_Kyle_. He was starting to really dislike that boy. He decided to mark his latest paper the moment he got home, just so he could show Danielle how little her newfound friend knew. That would serve him right for ruining his professor's weekend.


	6. What the Doctor Does

The Doctor watched Missy a lot. He had put a lot of effort into making sure that Danielle thought he left most of the Vault responsibilities to Nardole, because he hoped that seeing him so relaxed about the situation would give her some comfort. But, in actually, he spent a lot of time in the Vault, watching Missy.

He found himself pretending a lot around Danielle about Missy. Not because he wanted to lie to her but because he wanted her to feel comfortable. He wanted her to see Missy change for the better so that she would feel safe in the universe again, and to begin that change he had to feel it himself. And, as they said, you had to fake it until you made it.

But the reality was that he was absolutely terrified of Missy getting free. He was terrified because he knew the _first_ thing that she would do would be to take his wife and hide her away again, and he wasn't sure that they'd ever find each other again. He'd failed spectacularly when she had been taken and Missy wasn't going to be so careless a second time. She'd never be free and the thought of her being caught in that eternal torment broke his hearts. It physically _pained_ him. He'd rather her be dead, and that was a thought that he couldn't bear either.

So, it wasn't as if Danni's fears weren't valid. They were very much so; he just couldn't let her see that he felt the same. He had to save Missy for both of them, and if that involved him sitting in the Vault with her when he would rather be literally anywhere else, then he could do that. He could spend the next thousand years watching over her if he could cure the evil inside of her. He was happy to give up that time.

And if Danielle saw that even the biggest monster could be redeemed, then maybe she could start forgiving herself for her own past.

"I'm bored."

The Doctor didn't look up from his magazine. "This isn't supposed to be a walk in the park," he told her. "You're supposed to be self-reflecting."

"I could do that while walking in a park," Missy retorted as she shifted on the piano seat. He'd tried to make the Vault a little comfortable – after all, no one was going to be in the mood to do anything good in a hellhole – but the glass cube in the middle where Missy and her piano sat was for everyone's protection, including hers.

"Yes, but you're the one who got herself executed, and this is your punishment," he reminded.

She crossed her arms. "I said I was sorry," she muttered, which was true. He just wasn't convinced that she meant it yet.

"Sorry for what?" he countered. He didn't expect an answer, he was sure going cold turkey from being evil had fully set in yet.

When she didn't reply with a sarcastic remark, though, he looked up. She was staring at the back of the door, a slightly confused look on her face. There was a faraway look in her eyes. "Missy?" he called to her.

"I—" she started, before looking back at him. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" she asked politely. It was a start. The first start and it gave him a rather large wave of hope.

"I'll get you some new books," he told her. "Something to distract you. I'll bring them tomorrow."

"Thank you," she said, again meaning it and he went back to his magazine. "Maybe Danielle could bring them."

And all of his hope instantly faded away.

He closed his magazine. "No," he stated shortly, standing up.

"Wait, I'm sorry, I know I'm not supposed to bring her up," Missy quickly retracted, obviously worried about being left alone. He shot her a look.

"Bringing her up just shows that you have learnt nothing so far," he told her bluntly.

"I am trying," she insisted. "Maybe if she comes here, maybe if I just see her for a moment…"

"Regardless of the fact that she would _never_ come in here of her own choice, there is absolutely no way that I'd let her anywhere near you."

Missy smirked, a little smug. "I don't think you 'let' Danielle do anything," she retorted. "It's her own choice, isn't it?"

"Yes, and my answer is still the same," he replied. "You are not going anywhere near my wife. I'll bring you books tomorrow."

He turned and stormed out, making sure that the Vault doors were locked behind him and he was out of the basement and around the corner before he let his anger disappear. He paused in the stairwell, falling against the wall, hearts pounding painfully. His hands were shaking as he slid down, sitting on one of the steps.

Her words had brought out some primal fear in him. Knowing that Danni was still _so_ close to the front of her mind stirred up all of his worries, all of his nightmares and they had hit him like a giant fist in the stomach. It was his own fault. He shouldn't have been so quick to believe her words. It was a rookie mistake.

He could remember the feeling of his wife being missing. He remembered avoiding sleep because he always woke up with the hope of her being there, and every time that hope had been shattered. He remembered his thoughts being scattered because focusing on anything made him too painfully aware that she wasn't by his side. He remembered the dark thoughts of what could have been happening to her. He couldn't even _imagine_ how it was for her.

He took a moment to calm himself down before he held the pain tight, squishing it deep inside. He held it tight then he stood up and left to find his wife and try and make her feel safe again. He didn't know if Missy would really change, despite his hopes. He didn't know if they would ever be able to leave Earth, despite what both of them wanted.

All he knew for certain was that Danni was _never_ going to live like that again. Not while he had a say.

_~0~0~0~_

"Theta, I'm home!" Danni called as she chucked her bag down by the door as she stepped into the TARDIS. "Sorry I'm late, Kyle wanted to go food shopping so I said I'd help."

She couldn't see her husband anywhere, so she'd assumed he was somewhere deeper in the TARDIS and, like the gem she was, the TARDIS would just transmit her voice to wherever he was. Over the years the TARDIS's uses had become so ingrained into their lives that Danni had stopped thinking twice about using them. She just made sure to offer the blue box her gratitude on occasion and also made sure she kept her tidy.

The Doctor's head popped up from underneath the console, though, startling her thoroughly. His eyes were wide and he had a giant grin on his face.

"I've had a brilliant idea!" he told her happily.

"Oh?" she replied, both intrigued and wary. She knew what the Doctor's mind could come up with when left alone for too long. It was either going to be incredibly brilliant, incredibly troublesome or a combination of the two.

He practically skipped up to her, grabbing her hand. "Come with me," he instructed, pulling her along. "Don't dawdle."

"I'm not… I'm not dawdling, we've _just_ started moving."

"Yes, and I don't want you to dawdle," he told her, even though they only went underneath the console where he had appeared from. They came to a stop but he moved her, positioning her seemingly purposefully before waving his arm out. "Ta-da!"

Danni stared at the pillar of metal he had led her two, a little confused. "That's just storage," she said, a little bluntly. "Why are you showing me storage?"

He deflated a little. "I'm not showing you storage," he replied. "Why would- why would I waste my time on storage? Open it," he nudged her forward, "go on, open it."

She was still very confused, but she opened the hatch on the front of the pillar and immediately was spat at by a wire sparking. She jumped back, alarmed and turned to the Doctor. "What the hell was that?" she exclaimed.

"That is the decoration system of the TARDIS," he explained. "It's what creates the doors, the hallways, the rooms and the stairs when she feels like putting in stairs."

Danni frowned. "I don't think I've ever seen stairs outside the console room."

"That's because of this mess," he replied. "I don't think she _can_ put stairs in. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of the decoration is all a coincidence."

Danni carefully stepped a little closer to the wire, dipping her head in to take a look. "I'm not surprised," she said. "This is a fire hazard. I mean," she tentatively reached inside and pulled out a wire that had been stripped of its coating in a multitude of places, and she had to hold it between her thumb and finger to stop herself being electrocuted. "Look at this. When was the last time this was checked?"

"Well, actually, this only appeared about two days ago," he told her. "I was taking a look under the console when suddenly the space became a lot tighter. She decided that it was time to sort it out, I guess."

"Sure, I can see that. She always knows best when it comes to her health," she replied. The lights flashed, brightening for barely a second before returning to their normal level. Danni smiled, looking up at the bottom of the console platform. "You're very welcome, sweetie." She turned to the Doctor. "So, what about this gave you an idea?"

"A brilliant idea," the Doctor corrected. "I know you're a bit bored, so I thought I could try and teach you how to fix this."

Danni immediately shook her head. "Not a chance," she replied firmly. "Last time you tried to teach me how to fix the TARDIS, you ending up going back to that stupid otter colony."

"Those otters were nothing but hospitable to the both of us," the Doctor reminded. "And I also remembered all the fighting, so then I dug out…" He reached inside the metal tube and pulled out a book. "_This_!"

Danni looked at it very suspiciously, and took it with the same caution she'd stuck her hand into the wires with. After watching her husband for a moment longer to make sure nothing untoward was going to happen, she looked at the cover. "Wait, is this the manual?" she asked. "I thought you chucked this out of the doors?"

"Oh, I did," he replied. "Many times over my many lives. The TARDIS has stopped recreating them at this point, although I suspect that is mainly because she hates people telling her how she should work."

"We can all agree on that," Danni muttered. "What is it, then?"

"_That_ is the manual for a Type 35 TARDIS, in its original Gallifreyan," the Doctor explained proudly, like he knew she was going to love it. "I _could_ have had her recreate the original manual, but where's the fun in that?"

He hadn't been wrong. Her eyes lit up hungrily and she opened the book, flicking through the pages and seeing the strange script that she had become accustomed to seeing. There were diagrams, and tables, and… oh, full schematics of some of the more complicated panels. She could feel herself almost salivating.

On Darillium Jack had taught her some things about how the TARDIS worked, but even his knowledge had been only a fraction of what the TARDIS needed to be maintained and tinkered with. Eventually he'd run out of things to teach her, and her and the Doctor always ended up fighting when he tried to show her because the way his mind worked when it came to the mechanics of the TARDIS and the way hers did didn't seem to align. She had thought that, maybe eventually, she'd understand more but she'd put it to the side. This new book gave so many more possibilities on learning everything about their home.

She looked up at the Doctor, her mind connecting the dots he'd laid. "I can decipher what is wrong with the TARDIS's wiring by building up from the 35's base construction," she stated.

"And I can help you translate as you go," he finished for her. "I thought it would be a good project to get your teeth into now you've moved on from flat-packed furniture."

Over the last seventy years, Danni had spent most of her time guarded. Even with Missy trapped below them, she didn't want to give the over Time Lady any chance of knowing what she was thinking so she hid it until it became second nature again. Occasionally, though, the Doctor would see the Danni who came before shining through. The Danni who appeared on Darillium and stayed until they were called to the execution. The one who would smile, and laugh, and feel her delight and happiness without fear.

She looked up from the book, a giant grin on her face and he knew he'd helped her find her way out. "This is amazing," she praised. "This is such a great idea."

"Well, I was due one," he replied and she giggled before sitting down on the floor, crossed-legged with the book resting on them.

"I'm going to look it over, check out all the pictures. I'll come get you when I need something," she told him. He shook his head and sat down next to her.

"This is a group project. You have to share," he said and she didn't turn him away, instead she shuffled so she was closer to him.

"Alright," she agreed, opening up to the front of the book and flicking past a few pages of just text. "Oh, I know what that is!" she cried excitedly at the first picture. "It's- Oh, what is it called?" She tapped the page with her finger as she tried to pull the name from deep inside her brain.

The Doctor smiled softly to himself. He was so glad this was working. For once, probably for a while, she was thinking of nothing but what was in front of her. This was her natural curiosity shining through, her want to just know more about everything around her even if she didn't understand it at all. All that curiosity, and confusion, packaged together in one big, bright smile.

_~0~0~0~_

Nardole skipped down the stairs to the basement, humming to himself. He often did that. It was never anything in particular – or maybe he was, a bit of his memory had been scrambled in the merger with the banks back on the Harmony and Redemption – but it kept his days light and happy, so it was just something he did.

The moment he got to the bottom of the stairs, he stopped, surprised yet again by Danni, who was on her own in the basement, somewhere everyone knew she hated to be. She was checking the controls, which had been what he was going to do. Today was the day he checked the locks and the security system. She must have been worried about Missy getting out.

"You know," she started and he started, surprised. "I'm not supposed to be down here on my own. I'm letting you know I'm on my own. Are you on the other side of the door?" She stopped what she was doing and looked at the Vault's door. "You do know that with one press of a button I can see where you are?"

There was another pause, then a banging on the door. She took a step back, looking at the door suspiciously. "Did-Did you know that I was here on my own?" she asked, trying to sound confident but failing miserably. There were two bangs, indicating a 'no' rather than a 'yes'. She looked over the door, taking a shaking breath. "Don't lie to me," she instructed. "Yes or no; did you know I was on my own?"

There were another two knocks and she shook her head. While Nardole knew there was no way that Missy could have possibly known that Danielle was on her own, he knew that nothing anyone could have said would have convinced her otherwise. Missy was the monster that haunted her dreams, that sat on the edge of her thoughts and it was the one person Danni would never believe.

"I just—" she started before shaking her head. "I thought I was free of you," she said. She didn't sound angry, she sounded upset. "I thought I'd finally gotten away from you, but I never will. You shouldn't be here. The Doctor shouldn't have saved you. I just wanted to be free from you."

"That's enough of that, Ma'am," Nardole declared as he scuttled out of the dark and over to her. He took hold of her arms and gently turned her away, walking her towards the exit. "This is why you shouldn't be down here on your own."

Danni nodded, but stayed silent. He made sure to rub her arm to comfort her as he walked her up the stairs and into the courtyard. He didn't let her go as they entered the university building and headed up to the Doctor's office, where they met Bill in the hallway. She looked between the two, confused.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"It's fine," he told her. "Wait out here, please. The Doctor will call you in when he's ready." He gently nudged Danni into the office, where the Doctor had obviously been waiting for Bill judging by how he'd poised himself behind his desk; book in front of him, pretending to be reading.

He was out of his chair like a shot. "What happened?" he asked. Danni didn't look up from the floor, but allowed herself to be moved over to him.

"She went down into the basement on her own," Nardole said with the air of a parent who both knew that their child had done something wrong, but also knew the experience was enough of a punishment for them that they didn't need telling off anymore.

The Doctor tilted her face up so she was looking at him, shooting her a kind smile. "You know you're not supposed to do that," he chided lightly. "It just upsets you."

"I just want to be free of her," she whispered to herself. "I don't want to be trapped again."

He sighed heavily, pulling her in for a hug. He shared a look over her head with Nardole. "You are not trapped," he promised. Nardole turned and left to go stall Bill, which the Doctor appreciated greatly.

"Until she's gone, I am. And if she's gone that's so much worse 'cause she could be anywhere," Danni replied. "I don't want her to be anywhere. I want her to be nowhere."

"I'm not sure that's possible without opening the Void, and that's…" He shook his head, realising how he was quickly going off on a tangent he didn't need to. "You are not trapped, Danielle. I would never allow that."

"She's always winning. Always," Danni muttered into his chest. "She's got me trapped here and she didn't even have to do anything."

"You're not trapped here," he promised her again. "You can go wherever you want, whenever you want. Our home is a spaceship and a time machine."

"And I won't enjoy a second of it because she's in my head," she replied. She looked up at him. "I was looking at the door to the Vault, and I knew she was on the other side. I knew she was in that tiny box, and I was in the big, bright, beautiful world and do you know what I was thinking of?" He shook his head, knowing she wasn't looking for an answer. "When I was stuck in that bedroom, looking at the door and knowing she was wandering around outside. And not because I was in the reverse of that. It felt like I was still in that room and she was walking around, except this time my room was fucking huge and hers was tiny."

He untangled himself from her arms, only to take her face in his hands. "I am real," he said. "You are here. Nardole is out there, Bill is still going to annoy you." She chuckled slightly and he smiled back at her. "You're not going anywhere."

"Knowing she's down there, though," she replied. "I just- Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes… Most of the time everything feels real, but sometimes everything feels distinctly not and then the world just spirals. There's no doors anywhere, but what if I'm just missing them and…"

"Alright, alright, alright," he quickly interjected as she continued to work herself up. "Deep breaths, Danielle." She nodded, taking a shaking breath as she realised that she was starting to spiral into her head. "There are no doors because…"

"Because I am in the real world, and doors are only everywhere because of architectural design," she replied with a sigh. "There aren't doors in the wall to let me out of a dream, or a simulation."

"That's right," he encouraged, which by the look on her face he could tell was making her feel slightly patronised. "Sorry. That came out worse than I meant it to."

"I gathered," she replied dryly. "I am not in a simulation because you tend to be more socially inept in the real world."

"That is very true," he agreed. "People are a chore, you know that." She was suppressing a small smile and he knew what he was doing was working.

"I do," she said. "They're surprisingly troublesome."

"So, when you are concerned about the thoughts, remember that," he suggested. "You're not trapped, she is. You are free."

She nodded. "You're right. I know you're right," she told him. "I just… the idea of waking up again, after _so_ long…"

"Is not something you have to worry about," he promised. "Now—" he placed a kiss on her hair. "-why don't you go and borrow Nardole's computer and visit your mother? I'll come get you when Bill leaves."

She agreed and he gently nudged her towards Nardole's office, making sure to keep his happy smile on his face until she closed the door behind her.

He stormed to the door of his office, opening it up on Bill and Nardole. "Inside, now," he told Bill. "We're late." Bill rolled her eyes but walked in. Nardole started to follow. "Danielle's using your office. Go for a walk."

And he promptly shut the door in Nardole's face.

_~0~0~0~_

Maybe he should rename himself to the Watcher. The Doctor didn't seem fitting, considering how much watching he was doing now.

Danni and the Watcher, in the TARDIS, until the end of time.

It didn't have the same ring to it, really. Sounded really boring. He didn't want to be boring, no matter how much he insisted he wanted a quiet life. Quiet was for retiring. He had no intentions of ever retiring. He had a younger wife to keep up with, after all.

But, still, now he was stuck with watching.

He shifted in his chair, trying to get comfortable for the night. He didn't sleep much at all, but it sure felt like Danielle did. And every night, as well. It always seemed like she was asleep, and he was awake. After all this time, with all of his knowledge of Time Lord and Human biology, he still didn't understand why she kept that from her human side as she seemed to become more Time Lord as she regenerated. It was one of the many mysteries that made up his wife.

Usually, while she was asleep, he got on with the more relaxed parts of his life. He'd research topics for his lectures, or grade papers, or plan out his lessons for Bill. In times past he did try and teach himself how to knit so he, in turn, could finally teach Danni but for some reason that always seemed to fall to the side. Perhaps the universe just didn't want them to know how to knit.

Sometimes, though, he just couldn't sit still. It started with him checking the monitor every so often, looking into their bedroom to see if she was still asleep. He would justify to himself as, for example, thinking someone was walking through the halls and checking to see if it was here. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure he hadn't left a book on the bedside table. Very detailed, believable lies he would try and tell himself to stop him feeling like a creep.

Then, when the little fix of checking the cameras wasn't enough anymore, he started walking past the door. He'd pause and pretend to check his watch, or examine the wall for an imagined crack, when in reality he was listening to see if he could hear anything on the other side. Then he started going in, fetching any old object as if it was his life's mission to bring it to the console room. He'd pause by the bed, watch her breathing for a moment, then he would leave.

He could go weeks without the need to check on her, but eventually it would rear its ugly head and he would be back in the bedroom, watching her sleep like it was perfectly normal for him to do so. Eventually he would need to check she was still asleep. Eventually he needed to make sure that she was still _there_.

He watched a lot. He watched the students and saw Bill smile in confusion. He watched Missy and saw glimpses of hope even when he should know better. And he watched his wife to make sure that she wasn't a figment of his imagination. It aged him, it was tiring, but he wouldn't stop. He wouldn't ever stop.

He sighed quietly to himself them pushed himself off the chair that sat by his side of the bed. He'd watched her for long enough, even he couldn't stay there for too long. Before he had regenerated, he could watch her sleep for hours. Now, no matter how much he adored her, he did eventually get bored, even of his own fear.

"You know, if you want to stay, I'm not going to stop you," Danni muttered from the bed. For some reason, even though he could have sworn she was asleep, it didn't surprise him that she was awake. "But you're going to have to be quieter."

"I was being silent as the night," he retorted, but he sat on the edge of the bed next to her. She rolled over, barely being able to see him in the dark.

"All you have done for the last ten minutes is move around in the chair and sigh like you're bored the death," she replied. "If you're going to stay, just get into bed. It's comfier and you might actually get some sleep."

"Sleep is a waste of everyone's time," he stated, although he was glad of his comfy clothes as he laid in the bed next to her. She turned over onto her side, snuggling up against him. He wrapped her up in his arms and, suddenly, found himself curled up with her in bed.

"Sleep is God's greatest gift," she told him softly. "Sleep was how I found you again when my hope had gone. When we flew in Santa's sleigh and how I knew that, no matter what, we would find each other again. And, right now," she closed her eyes again. "It was where I was travelling in DeLorean, and I love the TARDIS but I'd very much like to get back there again."

"Go on, then, my Pet," he told her fondly, placing a kiss on her hair. "I'll be here when you wake."

The Doctor watched the world. He oversaw, he worked behind the scenes, and once in the while he would pop up and save the day. And, while he was watching everyone else, Danni was watching him. He had been taking care of her a lot since they'd settled down on Earth, but she would often do the same for him. When he was worried that she would disappear, which usually happened at night, she would make sure he could feel her there with him. Both of them were affected deeply by the monster under the floorboards of the university. Even though she didn't agree with the choice of keeping Missy alive, she refused to let him suffer because of it.

"We'll look into going somewhere tomorrow," she said, yawning through her words. "Somewhere else. Somewhere awesome."

_~0~0~0~_

_This is kinda filler, but I hope you like it none the less :)_

_Reviews :)_

_**Psst** \- Thanks, sweetie :)_

_**Apella** \- I think it's more that Danni doesn't like anyone, really._

_**Authora97** \- That's it, that's the story XD_

_**Sophia** **Lilia** \- Thanks, I'm very glad :D_

_**srosegarden** \- I love him too, to be honest. Must write him more often._

_**bored411** \- I can neither confirm nor deny your suspicion at this point :P_

_**ofbadchoices** \- You're review was very gratefully received, so don't worry about that. Yes, Recovery was an angst-fest. Hopefully this one will be a little less angsty. Can't promise, but hopefully XD_


	7. The Frost Fair

The TARDIS was rarely a tense place, but the air was thick and heavy. Danni stood on one side of the Doctor, back straight and very wary of everything that was going on. Bill was on the other, trying to act as respectful as she could, but she couldn't help but glance at Danni every other second. No one could really pinpoint what it was that seemed to intrigue her about Danni – she wasn't really her type, and they'd barely had a proper conversation between them. Perhaps she was just another look into the Doctor's life, who she had come to really admire and rather enjoy spending time with. Maybe it was just because there was a mystery that she hadn't worked out yet. A mystery to do with a Vault and a promise, and it all seemed to circle around the Doctor's wife.

Either way, it was probably the reason Bill watched too many soap operas when she had the time to, and why the Doctor was stood between the two. He needed to keep the space between them. He liked to think he'd come to know Bill rather well over the last few months, and by the way she was looking at his wife he wasn't convinced that she wouldn't just reach over and poke her to see if she reacted.

"Where are we going?" Danni asked, hoping to get the outing started. She really had felt that having a 'companion' on their first trip back out into the universe together would make everything feel more natural, which she had then hoped would ease her nerves. However, really, while there was a part of her that had spent time for hundreds of years travelling on and off with a companion, one that'd had a best friend called Clara and expected someone else there, her memories did not reflect that. There was a blur of a person there, but without the memory of her, Clara didn't exist in the emotions or 'feeling' of going on an adventure. Therefore, having Bill there all exciting about the wider universe, felt more awkward than it did comfortable.

"I was thinking somewhere familiar, yet new," the Doctor explained. "Somewhere exciting, but not too exciting."

Danni nodded. "That sounds sensible," she agreed before looking at him, suspicious. "I don't like it when you're sensible. It's concerning."

"Do you really expect me to be the old fool all the time?" he asked and, again, she nodded.

"All the time. Absolutely all the time."

He started manipulate the TARDIS controls. "Well, that's fair," he agreed. "However, this time, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."

They quickly landed, which Danni would have commented on being a first had Bill not been looking at her as if she expected her to speak. She was sure that companions weren't always like this. Was she supposed to speak on command? Perform like she was on a television show?

Then again, apparently when Amy and Rory had been younger, Amy had played pretend by being her and Rory being the Doctor like they were her favourite characters. Maybe she was just more interesting than she realised.

The Doctor headed for the door but stopped just before it. He held his arm out as Bill instinctively reached forward to open it to see what was outside. "Not you," he told her. "Danielle opens the doors."

Bill frowned. "For real?" she asked. "What, like all of them? Can you not open doors? Cause I'm sure I've seen you open plenty of doors. Is it an age thing? Or is it an alien thing? Do women have to open the door for men where you come from? Or can you not go outside in case you react badly to whatever is out there, and she's the guinea pig you use to make sure that it's safe. Because, to be honest, that sounds pretty harsh to do to your wife."

"What? No! No, of course not!" the Doctor exclaimed, utterly confused yet again by the stream of questions that came from his student. "No, she opens the doors first because I want her to see what's outside before anyone else." He turned to his wife, who was looking decidedly uncomfortable. Perhaps he should have fought for having this be a trip on their own. If she was willing to go somewhere else after this then maybe that's what they'd do.

"Go on, then," he encouraged. "You first."

Danni wasn't sure if she wanted to open the door now that Bill had pointed it out. There was a part of her that was rebelling simply because the other woman had put her on edge when they'd first met and it didn't want to go away. There again, though, everything put her on edge, so she decided to just go with it. She opened the door and was greeted with a cold wind blowing in her face, snow covering everything around them. There was the sound of people around them, meaning they weren't alone. She was sure she could hear animals in the distance.

Once she'd established that whatever was around them wasn't an immediate danger, she allowed herself to take in the sight. It was very cold, and the snow suggested winter. Smog filled the air. The Doctor stepped out next to her, Bill quickly joining them. An elephant walked past being led by a man, followed by some delighted children.

"You've brought us to winter," Danni said bluntly. Bill, who had been watching the elephant with a grin of delight, shot her a look of confusion. They were somewhere new and exciting, with wild animals, and that was all she'd noticed?

"Well, it wouldn't have worked in the summer, now would it?" the Doctor retorted. "It's a Frost Fair. The Last Great Frost Fair."

"So, London, then?" Danni asked and he nodded. "So Vastra's around here somewhere?"

"No, we're a bit early for her," he replied. "1814."

Danni frowned. "We've been to later frost fairs, though. That doesn't make any sense."

"Humans rarely do," he pointed out. "It's like a rock band's last ever tour. You get to the point where they've announced it so many times that you don't expect them to actually retire." He looked down at her. "When do you think we are?"

Danni looked around, a frown on her face. "You just said; 1814."

"Narrow it down. When in 1814 are we?"

He watched her as she studied the area. She looked for clothes, and for signs of anything obvious happening around them. People were wrapped up warm, but didn't seem overtly festive. It was very cold, as the snow showed, but it didn't scream the festive season. It just felt like a normal weekend.

"I think we're early in the year," she offered. "Maybe, I dunno, it's still quite wintery so maybe... Late January?"

She never sounded sure, but he couldn't help but grin. "February the fourth," he told her.

She nodded along. "So you aimed for a frost fair, but nowhere near our friends?"

"Not necessarily," he replied. "Perhaps I just aimed for somewhere that was a bit old, and yet a bit new."

"Ah. So you did aim for Vastra, but missed," Danni teased. "Gotcha." She took one last look around, enjoying the cold breeze of a time gone by against her cheeks. Standing in new places, in new times, would always feel amazing to her. "I'll go get changed." She nodded her head towards the TARDIS. "We all probably should."

She headed inside and Bill frowned. She didn't seem too bothered about having travelled in time. In fact, she seemed more annoyed than anything. She leant in closer to the Doctor. "If she didn't want to be here, then why did she come?" she asked, more curious than anything.

The Doctor did know better than Bill. He knew that Danni was incredibly happy to be there, but too tightly wound to show it. He knew that she'd have headed not to the wardrobe, but straight to their bedroom to see if the purple dress Madam Vastra had bought for her so long ago still fit. He knew that she was trying to guess what the Frost Fair was going to offer that was different to the last one they had visited.

He opened his mouth to answer, but instead just turned and headed inside. Bill followed, wondering if she'd hit a nerve and that was why he wasn't answering. "How did you miss?" she asked. "I thought you said that this thing could go anywhere you wanted?"

"She can, and she does. Occasionally," the Doctor replied. "You don't steer the TARDIS, you reason with her."

"How?"

He glanced at the console. That was the question, wasn't it?

"Unsuccessfully, most of the time," he replied before flipping another switch, moving the TARDIS from where he'd originally landed to on a bridge next to it. "She's a bad girl, this one. Always looking for trouble."

He loved having someone new on the TARDIS. He loved the fresh blood it brought, how it shook things up and reminded him of little things that he tended to forget over time. Bill's amazement at them moving was one of them. For him it had been barely a thought, for her it was a marvel to behold.

"Last day before the thaw. Thought I'd better find a more reliable parking spot," he told her.

"Wait, you want to go out there?" she asked, a little apprehensive, much to his confusion. She'd agreed to go on the trip, after all. Had she just expected them to look out at the world around them but never step in? He knew that Danni enjoyed to people watch on occasion, but what was the point of exploring unless you, well, explored?

"You don't?"

"It's 1814," Bill reminded before pointing at her face. "Melanin."

He just looked confused. "Yes?"

She looked around before tentatively stepping out. She didn't want to be seen. "Slavery is still totally a thing."

The Doctor sighed sadly. "Yes, so it is."

"It might be, like, dangerous out there," she pointed out, stepping slowly backwards towards the TARDIS.

He nodded. "Definitely dangerous."

"So, how do we stay out of trouble?"

"Well, I'm not the right person to ask," he replied. "Danielle is usually the one who tries to keep us out of danger, but she's not very good at it, either."

Was she going to have to be the sensible one? Because, if Bill was honest with herself, she wasn't great at being sensible. She wasn't reckless, either, as her concern clearly showed. But, if she had to be the adult, she wasn't sure she was going to be up to the job. After all, she'd taken a tutorship with a man she'd barely met on a whim.

"Okay," she started. "When you go somewhere dangerous, what do you take?"

The Doctor used his hand to point into the TARDIS. "First door on the left, second right, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on the left."

"What's there?"

"The wardrobe. Pick a dress."

"So the TARDIS has dresses and likes a bit of trouble?" she asked before smiling. "Yeah, I think I'm low-key in love with her."

The Doctor grinned back. "We all are," he replied before she dashed off.

_~0~0~0~_

Danni pouted. She rarely pouted, after all she was a grown Time Lady and didn't need to pout, but she looked in the mirror and she pouted. She'd stepped into their bedroom and opened the wardrobe to find her favourite purple dress hanging up inside, placed there thoughtfully by the TARDIS. With only a slight adjustment of the top, Danni had fit into it better than she had expected. She still looked amazing in it and had smirked to herself as she'd looked herself over.

Until she looked down and saw the definite gap between the floor and the bottom of her favourite dress, where she'd grown a few inches when she'd regenerated. And now it just looked too small.

The door opened behind her but she didn't look around. "Everything alright?" the Doctor asked as he stepped inside. She shook her head and he was hit with the concern that maybe the trip out had been too much after all, especially with a third person. Would he have to take her back to the university? He didn't want her uncomfortable, after all, but he didn't look forward to breaking the news to Bill.

"My dress doesn't fit," she told him sadly, turning around. He looked rather dashing in his top hat and blue vest. Each body had always looked amazing in Victorian dress. He had his cravat hanging around his neck as he obviously was finishing getting ready. She suddenly wished that they'd taken their first trip without Bill, but for entirely different reason.

He tried not to laugh because, while he had been worried about her genuinely being upset, her dress not fitting as she wanted didn't seem too big of a deal. It seemed a bit silly he'd been ready to rush home because of it.

"You've got plenty of dresses. Wear one of those."

"I like _this_ dress."

He walked over, standing behind her so he could see both of them in the mirror. "Get the TARDIS to alter it, then," he told her. She looked up at him, outraged.

"Vastra bought me this dress!" she exclaimed. "Don't be rude, Theta."

"Well, then, you'll have to find another one until she can take you shopping again," he replied simply. "Maybe you can find a blue one to go with my outfit. Which you have to admit, I look rather dashing in."

"You look amazing as always, sweetie," she told him. "You know how much I like you in a suit."

He wrapped his arms around her. They both did suit the era rather well, didn't they? "Are you okay?" he asked, this time a little gentler and she sighed.

"I'm fine. I want to be here," she promised. "Let me just find another dress." She tugged at the skirt a little more, hoping to make it reach the floor properly. "I love this dress."

"So do I," he told her before placing a kiss on her hair. "Don't be long, we've got a whole new London to investigate."

He left her staring at herself in the mirror. They both knew that it wasn't just the dress that was bothering her, but her own worry about leaving Missy unattended by anyone but Nardole. But he also knew that the temptation of something even remotely new couldn't keep her away for too long.

And he was right, of course. She took a minute to calm her nerves before heading back to the wardrobe. She was sure that, really, the TARDIS would provide her what she needed eventually. She just needed to be coaxed.

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor stepped out onto the snow outside, now dressed in full black frock coat, before holding his hand out to Danni. She took it and he helped her step out like the gentleman he was. She hadn't gone with a matching blue, but rather a deep red that he thought suited her amazingly and he had been very blunt in telling her so. She'd appreciated it.

Bill stepped out afterwards in a green outfit, looking around as she tried to be sneaky about leaving. People walked past, chatting and getting on with their day and no one even batted an eyelid at the trio who had appeared out of a giant blue police box. "Doesn't anyone notice the TARDIS?"

"Your species hardly notices anything," the Doctor replied as he slipped Danni's hand into the crook of his arm. She was sure he was being overly attentive to make her feel more at ease, maybe even more so with Bill around, but it also felt so natural for them to walk together that she tried to not dwell on it at all. She was there because she wanted to enjoy an outing into the past with her husband and his friend. She didn't want to wonder what was going on through Bill's mind, or who was looking in their direction, or trying to keep an eye out for another woman out of her time who Danni knew was hanging around in Victorian London. Missy didn't turn up until later, much later. She needed to stop being so alert.

"So, what are the rules?" Bill asked as they walked down the stairs of the bridge that led to the street below, where there was a line leading to the frost fair on the Thames.

"Rules?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah. Travelling to the past, there's got to be rules. If I step on a butterfly, it could send ripples through time that mean I'm not even born in the first place and I could just disappear," she explained rapidly.

"Well, I would suggest not stepping on any butterflies," Danni replied. "They've not done anything to you and to change so much of time by hurting one seems a little cruel, doesn't it?"

Bill looked at her to see if she was being serious, but it was hard to tell with the neutral look she had. The Doctor always seemed more expressive than his wife. "You know what I mean. Every choice I make in this moment, here and now, could change the whole future."

"Oh, most definitely. Actions do have consequences, after all," Danni said shortly, almost pointedly. "Just don't do anything stupid. It's a hard task, I know, but that's all you have to do; don't be stupid."

A little girl walked up to the trio, holding out a flyer in front of her that was almost as big as she was. She looked adorable in her white dress and bonnet and Bill immediately smiled at her. She looked adorable, like a little kid dressed up as an urchin, except she was actually an urchin.

"Come to the Frost Fair, miss," she said to her. "Only a sixpence, miss."

Danni took a small step closer to the Doctor, away from the little girl and into his side. She still wasn't massively comfortable around young children. She hadn't been since she'd escaped from Missy, they reminded her of just what she'd done to get back to her husband. So many children in the universe cried because of her, it was almost instinctive that she didn't want to make another one do so. The Doctor felt the shift and let her stand so close she was pushing up against him.

"Oh, my God," Bill breathed, overcome with how adorable the girl was. Neither Time Lord could disagree with her.

She reached out, hesitating before she took it. The Doctor sent her a look. "You're not stepping on a butterfly; you're just taking a flyer." She took the piece of paper and the little girl smiled brightly at them both. The Doctor took off his hat, placing it on top of the girl's head before handing her a coin from his pocket. "It's just time travel. Don't overthink it."

"Except when you have to," Danni interjected. "Sometimes you have to."

"It's incredibly annoying, though, so we'll tell you when that is."

The Doctor paid for them at the bottom of the stairs that led down to the river. It made Bill wonder if he carried currency for every time in the TARDIS. She would have to see if he would show her his collection. She'd love to see what money was like in the future.

He stepped onto the ice first and turned, stopping his wife before she could follow. She looked down at him, seemingly confused but with a small smile on her face. He shot her a wolfish grin in reply and Bill couldn't help but remember when he'd pulled her into his office that first time. He said he'd noticed her because she smiled when she was confused, perhaps it was just something he liked in his friends.

He reached out and grabbed Danni around the waist, lifting her off the stairs and spinning her around to place her on the ice. She yelled out in surprise, grabbing him tightly by the arms whilst a couple of onlookers laughed, enjoying the sight. Danni started to smile up at him as he stared down, almost daring her to tell him off when he knew she had liked the attention.

Then she noticed Bill watching, and the smile dropped almost immediately. Bill wasn't sure if she should have been offended at the change in demeanour, or if Danni just wasn't too keen on public displays of affection. She could understand that. Being in a student environment meant she'd seen a few people who really needed lessons on privacy, and she was an open-minded girl.

Either way, Bill ignored the other two and took her own moment to step onto the ice below. Despite everyone having a good time around her, she was still concerned about the ice giving way underneath her and her plunging into the icy depths below. However, despite the sound of a small crunch of snow underfoot, nothing happened and she smiled with delight. How was this even her real life?

"Yeah, no big deal. Just walking on the Thames," she declared. She walked up to the Doctor, a serious look on her face. "I hope you realise I'm going to try everything," she told him. "_Everything_."

With that, she headed straight for the food vendors, looking for something tasty to sink her teeth into. Danni watched her go. "Oh, the food first? Bad choice," she declared to her husband.

"Why's that?" he asked her, looking down at the top her head.

"Well, they don't exactly sell chips here, do they?" she reminded him. "You go save her; I'm going to go see what entertainment they have out here."

She leant up, placing a kiss on his cheek. "Here was me thinking you would want to put her off going travelling," he commented.

"Oh, I do," she replied. "But no one deserves bad food." She made a move to head the other way, but then smiled at him. "This was a good choice," she said. "Thank you for making me do this."

"I would never make you do anything that makes you uncomfortable," he stated. "But I knew you needed a day out as much as I did."

She shooed him away and towards Bill as she headed out into the festivities. Frost Fairs were some of her favourite destinations. People were always friendly and merry, there was so much to see. It always felt like the best part of humanity was on display, when all she really ever saw these days was the worst in anyone. It was hard to be annoyed at the universe when everyone was smiling at you.

Well, actually, the universe in general still annoyed Danni, but the Frost Fair was dulling that feeling slightly. She could feel herself falling into the atmosphere, only checking out the shadows and not the face of every person who walked by her. She stopped and watched a juggler for a moment, a soft smile on her face. It was basic entertainment, but there was something rather enticing about a man chucking knives about and catching them without hurting himself.

In fact, the more she walked around, the happier she felt. She wasn't even bothered that the Doctor was off with someone else, exploring the sights and hopefully keeping her away from the food. She enjoyed time on her own. She didn't want to be observed all the time to make sure she wasn't 'relapsing' into her old ways. She felt more like herself than she had in a while.

Of course, that was until she saw the green lights underneath the ice. She stopped in her tracks, watching the small dots dance under the ice before disappearing off to the edge.

_Green lights._

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor was really enjoying showing Bill the sights. He enjoyed showing Danni, or anyone actually, the new places that he liked to travel, but with Bill as with any companion, it was nice having someone who really didn't know anything about time travel to show off too. He needed to be a bit more creative with his wife than he used to. She was starting to really become rather smart. He loved it, but he could remember a time when he was this all-knowing alien who swept her off her feet. Now he was just her incredibly handsome and smart husband.

Bill bowled her small wooden ball, knocking over the pins with one shot. There was a cheer from the crowd and she looked rather bashful. "Pub champion, two years running," she explained.

_Green lights._

He frowned as he turned from Bill. Danni very rarely reached out to him anymore, not since Missy became a permanent fixture in their lives. But she had very purposefully called to him, putting the image in his mind and he looked down at the ice. There were green lights, much like the end of his old sonic screwdriver, darting around before disappearing. Interesting. Something was happening in the river. Something that shouldn't have been. This calm trip out had suddenly turned into an adventure, much like they used to, but this time he also had his wife by his side. He grinned; perfect.

He straightened up again only to notice a top hat sat enticingly behind a man who didn't seem to care about it. He'd given his away to the cute little girl because he knew it'd amuse her, but he did rather like a hat. He walked over, picking it up without anyone noticing and putting it on before ushering Bill out. He didn't want to be caught, after all.

Now he just needed to get a bit more information and to do so he needed to look around a bit more. Outside of the tent with the skittles was a salesman, calling his wares out to the people around them. "Best fist pies on the ice! Try your luck, ladies and gentlemen! Toss for a pie!"

That would do quite nicely. Fish, water, it was all the same really.

_Fish pies._

One thing he never expected on their adventures was the fact that people could still hoodwink him. He expected to be surprised, or even disappointed on occasion, but being hoodwinked always came from nowhere and he didn't appreciate it. So he didn't appreciate it when the vendor of the fish pies managed to win a coin toss when he really shouldn't have. It wasn't that the coin was fixed, or that chance wasn't on his side. He very deliberately won the toss that meant Bill had to pay for her pie and the Doctor could not work out why.

Sometimes he loved not knowing stuff. Sometimes he hated it. _This_ he hated.

As he was checking the vendor's clothes for the answer to his con, Bill spotted the lights underneath the ice again and followed them outside. If Bill was spotting them, a woman who had been open about how she was throwing herself straight into the experience of being in Georgian London, then they really were a cause for concern.

The vendor was getting more and more irate, though, which the Doctor did not understand. He needed to calm him down so he could find out how he'd managed to fix the flip of the coin, so he could show Danielle at a later date and maybe use it against Nardole to get him to do more of the chores around the TARDIS. He very much hated having to dry the dishes by hand.

"Don't look at me like that," the Doctor told him. "I'm saying you're a very good con-man."

He thought it was a great compliment. The vendor did not. "I'm a what?"

"A trickster. A swindler. You see," he smiled, boastful, "I'm a bit of a thief myself. I bet you that I could steal anything from your shop."

The next thing he knew he was being thrown from the shop, skidding across the ice into some of the entertainment. What the vendor didn't know was that it was all part of his plan. Sure, the plan was made up as he was skidding across the ice, but it still played into it perfectly.

"In theory!" he called into the shop. "I could steal anything _in theory_."

Bill walked over to him, pie in hand and looking very confused. "Doctor?"

"Honestly, some people," he muttered before reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the pie he'd managed to swipe as he'd been thrown out of the tent. All part of his pan. "More pie?"

Bill smiled, totally amused, as they quickly made their way away from the tent just in case the vendor noticed. "Are there side-effects to time travel?" she asked him. "Like, physical symptoms?"

The Doctor paused at a well that had been created in the ice so he could make sure they weren't being followed. "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah," he told her and he could tell by the look on her face she was very concerned. "Sometimes you see lights under the ice."

He shot her his widest grin, just in case she couldn't tell he was teasing her. She sighed, relieved. "So you've seen the lights," she stated as he ushered them further on.

"Of course," he replied, weaving a path through the crowd. Suddenly, without warning, he stopped in his step. Bill immediately looked down, assuming he'd seen more lights. There was nothing, so she looked up to see him looking off the side, back the way they had come from. "There you are!"

Danni appeared, holding her skirt slightly aloft as she also fought her way through the people around them. Bill hadn't even seen her. Had the Doctor just sensed her? Was that part of his alien powers? Did he have a strange third eye on the back of his head that he used when people weren't looking?

"Well, that did you expect?" Danni replied as she joined the pair. "All you gave me was 'fish pie'. Do you know how many people are selling pies around here? It's a frost fair."

"All you gave me was 'green lights'," the Doctor pointed out.

"Yes, but that was because I assumed that you'd already seen them. I was just letting you know that I'd seen them too," she explained.

"And I assumed you would be clever enough to find us. Which you were."

"Well, I heard a man shout angrily, it wasn't hard to work out that it was because of you," she teased. "Nice hat."

He straightened it. "I thought so."

"Stolen?"

"Naturally."

"So," Danni started, looking at Bill for a moment to see if she was all caught up. She seemed more confused at the pair so she started walking again. "Green lights in the water that no one is noticing."

"Electric or organic?" the Doctor asked in reply.

"Organic, of course," Danni replied, with the air of confusion that anyone could have thought anything different.

"Hang on; organic lights?" Bill asked.

"Bioluminescence," the Doctor explained. "Fireflies, glow-worms..."

He trailed off as a young girl, wrapped in a shawl and looking a little tattered around the edges, walked up holding a large dog collar on a lead. She looked rather upset. "Please, sir, have you seen my dog?" she asked. "He was right here, but then I looked away and he..."

She trailed off, sounding like she was about to cry. Bill was immediately taken in by it. Danni was not. She knew a crying child when she saw one, she'd heard too many in her time. The girl was playing them. She turned just in time to see a young boy freeze behind her husband. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," she warned him.

The Doctor and Bill turned around and the boy took his chance, reaching out and grabbing the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. She caught hold of his wrist and was treated to a swift boot in the shin off the young girl. Her leg gave way and she buckled as the pair rushed off.

"Danni, are you alright?" the Doctor asked as he moved to help her up. However, she was already on her feet, a snarl on her face.

"You little shits!" she shouted after them and, with another hitch up of her skirt, was already on their tails before the Doctor and Bill could react. "I'm gonna kill the pair of you!"

"Oh no," the Doctor muttered. "That's not going to end well." He motioned with his head for Bill to follow and they chanced the two children and his wife.

_~0~0~0~_

There was a warning that the ice was thin, probably because the thaw was coming, but as neither of the kids seemed to care, Danni didn't either. She dashed out, even as the ice creaked underfoot. "Stop right there and give me that back!" she called.

The young boy did come to a stop, but not because the Time Lady was calling after him. Instead he looked down and saw the lights that both Danni and Bill had seen, all swarming around his feet. He wasn't scared, he was delighted as they grew closer and closer to him.

"Spider! She'll have you transported!" the girl called to her friend.

"Of course I won't!" Danni snapped in reply. She had also come to a stop, away from the lights, which were suddenly her biggest concern. "But you need to get off the thin ice, the pair of you."

The lights really liked Spider, gathering under his feet in a tight spiral. He started to look less amazed and more concerned. He looked over at his friend, who looked just as worried. "Kitty?" he asked before the ice gave way and he screamed.

Danni was going to rush to grab him, but there was a blur of black clothing as the Doctor ran instead. The ice closed around the boy's arm until it was stuck up, holding the sonic screwdriver aloft like a sword. The Doctor held his hand out, stopping Kitty from running over to help her friend.

"Stay back!" he warned before slowly stepping forward. He reached out to grab Spider's hand, to pull him back through the ice, but missed. He managed to grab the screwdriver out of his hand, but not Spider, who disappeared under the ice. The ice reformed over where his armhole had been and it was as if the little boy had never been there at all.

Bill was horrified. She continued to stare at the empty spot as the lights disappeared. She couldn't believe what she just saw, and it devastated her. He was just a kid. A kid who had no parents, probably no home. Who was stealing to survive, so he can't have had much at all. And the ice just... just ate him.

She turned to the Doctor, the man who had saved her from a space puddle and saved the colonists from the robots who didn't understand emotions. He was checking out his sonic screwdriver, making sure that it wasn't damaged. She looked to Danni, who was looking at where the hole had been with a concerned, but not upset, look on her face.

"Save him," Bill demanded. Danni looked to the Doctor, who knew they were both thinking the same. How they wanted so badly to just be a couple seconds faster, but there was no way the boy was alive.

"We can't," the Doctor replied simply. "He's gone."

This wasn't the answer Bill wanted. Her face turned into a snarl and she stepped closer, almost as if she was going to fight him there and then. "Do something and save him."

The anger came out of pain and fear, the Doctor knew that. He knew what both of those mixed together looked like, so he didn't take her anger to heart. Instead he tried to form a plan, for which he needed time and for no one else to die.

He turned to Kitty. "I'm sorry about your friend, but the danger isn't over yet. There must be more of you living rough here. Tell me where."

Kitty shook her head, moving away from the trio. She didn't know what had happened, but all she knew was that going with any adult was a bad idea. "So you can take us to the Magistrate?" she accused. Danni lurched forward, grabbing her arm to stop her from running away.

"I know you don't trust us, and you've got every reason not to," she told the young lass. "But I can tell you this; we are not the bad guys here, and we certainly do not care about keeping the peace and sending you back to the workhouse. We're the ones who just tried to save your friend, and we are the only three who will care that he's gone."

"Three?" Kitty scoffed. "She's gone!"

Both the Doctor and Danni turned around in surprise to see that Bill had vanished complete. Danni rolled her eyes and Kitty broke free, running off. "Nice pick," she snapped.

"I seem to remember you not acting too well around your first death, either," the Doctor reminded in defence. Danni's annoyed look didn't waver.

"I stand by what I said," she stated. "You go after Bill, make sure she's alright. I'll follow the girl and try and find out where the rest of the kids are and keep them out of any danger."

"I thought you didn't like kids anymore. I thought they 'confused' you."

"They do," she replied bluntly. "But you're a big Time Lord now, you can comfort your own companion." She placed a kiss on his cheek. "Love the hat."

"Love the attitude," the Doctor retorted and she shot him a cheeky smirk before rushing after Kitty.


	8. The Division of Labour

Why did she decide to go after the girl? She wasn't good with kids. Hell, she wasn't good with people. How was she supposed to get Kitty to tell her where the other kids were? She wouldn't trust a bunch of adults, either. Adults had done nothing but screw her over since she'd grown up herself.

Danni really should have let the Doctor deal with the little girl. Then again, how was she supposed to deal with Bill? She didn't trust her at all, and she knew she couldn't just fake it. She was too old and too tired to deal with Bill's many, many annoying questions. And she knew that Bill wasn't too keen on her, either. She was the Doctor's friend, not hers.

Danni spotted Kitty stick her head out from around the back of a tent and darted forward, grabbing her arm before she could go anywhere. "Wait, wait!"

Kitty tugged her arm, trying to get away. "I'll scream," she warned.

"Sure, you go right ahead. But we all know between the girl in rags and the woman in fine clothing, who they're going to believe."

Kitty stopped fighting. "What do you want?" she demanded. "What did you do to Spider?"

"Nothing. How could I? I was farther away then you were, remember?" Danni snapped back before pulling her towards the edge of the festivities. "I know you're scared. We're all scared, that's life but what you saw wasn't normal and we want to help."

"There's only one of you, now," Kitty accused.

"That's because my husband has gone to deal with the runaway child while I'm doing the sensible thing and following you," she retorted. "We really just want to help. We don't do police and we don't do adults. Your friend is gone but you're still here and I think we should keep it that way, don't you?"

"And what are you going to do, eh?" Kitty challenged. "You're not up to much, are you?"

"Hey!" Danni exclaimed before catching herself. She leant in a little closer. "You know as much as I do that what's on the outside doesn't matter. I'm better than you think. You know you're in danger and you know that it's not from us."

Kitty looked unsure, distrustful and Danni couldn't blame her for a moment. She felt the same about most things and she was really starting to regret agreeing to going on a trip. She should have just stayed home and looked after the Vault. If, for one moment, Missy got out…

"Is-Is Spider dead?" she asked and Danni sighed.

"Most likely," she admitted. "And I am sorry. I wouldn't have chased you had I known what was underneath the ice."

"What is underneath the ice?" Kitty asked.

"I don't know. But I promise we'll find out and we'll stop it," Danni told her. "But we need your help. We just want to keep you safe."

"What are you going to do?" the girl asked, this time genuinely asking rather than using it as a slight.

Danni looked around again, trying to see what she could spot in the crowds. There was a lot of people, all wearing fancy clothing and making her feel like Missy could sneak through them without anyone noticing. So, there was nothing new there for her.

"For now, you're going to take me to where the rest of you are," she explained. "Then we'll work from there."

"What about your husband?"

Danni smiled and tapped her own temple. "Don't worry about him. He can read my thoughts," she explained, like it was a joke. "He'll find us."

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor found Bill sat at the river's edge, huddled into herself and crying. He hovered behind her, a little awkward as he really wasn't sure how to deal with anyone being emotional around him. Bill glanced up as his shadow fell over her and she rolled her eyes.

"How did you find me?"

"Get used to that question," the Doctor told her.

"Oh, clever. Yeah, very clever," she retorted, with a crack in her voice that said she was still very much upset. He reached up and took off his hat, running his hand through his hair to sort it out. He did love a hat, but it flattened his hair and it was rather annoying. How was he supposed to look like the handsome hero with his hair stuck to the top of his head?

He knew that he was focusing on his hair because Bill's mood was making him uncomfortable, and he also knew that he couldn't ignore it. "What's wrong?"

She looked at him like he had two heads. Not for the first time. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Seriously, what's wrong? I've never seen anyone die before!"

It wasn't a new thought. His life was a dangerous one, and eventually everyone saw someone die. Reactions varied wildly depending on the situation. Donna had been concerned for him. Danni had frozen and terrified. And Bill Potts, it would seem, was just plain upset.

"A few weeks ago we were standing in a garden full of dead people," he reminded her. It just took some perspective, sometimes, to get people back on track.

"That was different," she protested.

"How?"

She turned from even. He knew she could see the flaw in her own argument. Why did he surround himself with such stubborn people?

"They were dead already," she told him. He tried not to sigh. They didn't have time for this whole discussion. There was a kid dead under the water and they had no idea how that happened. Or, in fact, who else had been dragged under. He didn't know what was there, or who had put it there, or why they were eating people in the first place. It reminded him too much of the half-faced man he had fought when he had regenerated, oh _so_ long ago now. Danni had told him she'd met the half-robot again in the data slice that Missy had created as an afterlife. He hoped it wasn't something like that again. How terribly boring that would be.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" she shot at him. He should have expected it, but he didn't. He never did. "There's a look in your eyes sometimes that makes me wonder. Have you?"

He thought back over his life. He saw flashes in his mind of all the people he failed to save, of all the people he let die. Of all the people he purposefully led to their deaths because he had no other choice, or because he was angry. "There are situations when the options available are limited…"

She shook her head, upset. "Not what I asked."

He tried again, hoping to be more diplomatic. "Sometimes the choices are very…"

"That's not what I asked!" she exclaimed and he realised that she already knew the answer. In her heart, in the way she looked at him and he sighed again.

"Yes."

"How many?" she challenged but he didn't reply. It wouldn't matter if he told her the amount. It could have been one, it could have been a million. His answer would always mean the same. "Don't tell me. You've moved on." She swallowed hard, angry at him even though she didn't know why. "What about your wife? Does she know? Or was she in on it as well?"

The accusations at himself the Doctor could live with. He'd wasn't clean in his life and he knew that, depending on which side you were on, he could be the good guy or the bad guy. He could hold up his hand and accept any punishment coming his way. But the anger, and the accusation in Bill's eyes wasn't something he would ever stand being aimed at someone else.

"No," he cut in before she could rant even more. "Be angry at me, or don't, that's entirely up to you at this point. You've already made your decision on whether or not I'm morally sound. But don't bring Danielle into _your_ dilemma."

"I can tell you something now, Doctor," Bill started. "You can pretend that you've moved on all you like. But I've seen the way that Danni's been walking around here, I've seen the way she looks at all of the other people at the university. She doesn't care."

Again, he knew that she wasn't angry at either him or Danni. She was upset, she was mourning the loss of a little boy she didn't know and her innocent thoughts that everything worked out for the best. She didn't know how dangerously close she was to the truth, or the effort that both Time Lords had been putting in to make sure that Danni did care again.

He took a deep breath. "You know what happens if we don't move on? More people die," he told her lowly. "There are kids living rough near here. They may well be next on the menu. And she's not the one taking the time to have a tantrum in the middle of it." He held up his hand as she opened her mouth to protest. "Let me tell you something. I'm two thousand years old, and I have never had the time for the luxury of outrage."

He could see Bill's conflict rushing on her face, and part of him wondered if he had been too hard on her. She'd had quite the experience seeing the young boy being pulled under the ice, he wasn't feeling particularly great about it either. And he knew that Danni, when she allowed herself to, would also care. She didn't really remember it, but he could still see her holding Rigsy's baby like she would destroy the universe before she would let anything happen to the little one in her arms. He knew that there was a protective, emotional, loving person in her that she was so used to repressing that she struggled to let them out. He knew she would be with the young lass she'd chased after, thinking every single moment about the little boy in the hopes that maybe they could save the rest.

And he was with Bill, hoping that if he couldn't save the boy, maybe he could save his friend. And maybe if he could help Bill see that the universe needed help, even when it was uncomfortable or upsetting, and if they didn't help then no one would.

She tried not to look at him, she tried not to let his words settle in her head and, for some strange reason, calm her. Giving her something to focus on was actually helping. "What do you mean 'on the menu'?" she asked.

"Something pulled that boy underneath the water," he reasoned. "If it's under the water it most likely lives there. Why else would it come up?"

"Because most things are hungry, yeah?" Bill replied and he shot her a smug look.

"I knew you were listening," he replied. "Yes, I suspect our victim has unfortunately become a rather tasty snack. The thought now is; how do we save the next one?"

Bill's immediate thought was to go tell someone, but then she thought back to their last adventure together. She'd thought that maybe they should have called the police when they realised that the emoji robots were killing everyone. She'd quickly come to realise that the Doctor was the police, or rather a more eccentric version of them. So she quickly dismissed the thought and had a look around. No one seemed to have noticed that something horrific had just happened, or was happening around them, so they probably didn't know.

"Where's Danni?" she asked, another horrible thought coming to her. "She didn't get pulled under as well, did she?"

The Doctor pulled a face. "What? No, of course not. You think I would be here calming you down if she had?" He had a point, but Bill still glared at him for dismissing her upset yet again. "No, she went after the little girl." He paused for a moment then looked to his left. "That way."

Bill followed him. "How do you do that?" she asked. "Is it an alien thing? Are you two like, bonded or something mentally because you're alien and married? Or can I learn it as well, 'cause that would be really helpful? Or is it something a human brain can't do?"

Again with all the questions. They always both annoyed and amused him. Oh, was that how Danielle felt about Nardole? He was starting to understand it.

"It has nothing to do with being human. Danielle has a human brain; she can do it. It's to do with your species complete and utter ignorance when it comes to the power your brains can handle."

"I thought she was alien too?"

"She is," the Doctor replied, confusing her even more. "She's also human. And a little immortal, but we're still working the extent of that out."

"Hang on, immortal? As in 'she can't die'?" she exclaimed and he waved her questions away as he spotted his wife with the little girl waiting patiently for them catch them up. Kitty wasn't looking particularly comfortable teaming up with the adults she'd grown up to be wary of, but he knew by the fact that she was stood with Danni meant that she was agreeing to work with them.

"Are we close?" he asked her and she nodded. He turned to Kitty. "Lead the way."

_~0~0~0~_

The children's hideout was in an abandoned house not too far from the river. It was empty, at first, but all of the homeless children Kitty looked after came out of hiding at her command. They, of course, were hiding from the adults who may have been on the lookout for children to take to the Magistrate so no one could blame them for hiding.

"Oh, I see! I get it," the Doctor said happily, looking around at all the young children, including the little girl he had given his hat to. "You lure people to the fair and then you rob them. Very good. Very enterprising."

"That's not how it is," Kitty protested.

"Oh, what? You don't rob people?"

"Course we do. But bringing people to the fair, that's by-the-by. On the side, like," she explained.

"Why?"

"For coin, of course," Kitty replied.

"Money, obviously," Danni said at the same time like it was a stupid question. She shot him a look. "What? You think I got by on the run with just my good looks alone?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I assumed it was a large part of it, yes," he replied. "That and the stealing."

"Well, I worked the odd job as well," she said, almost defensively. "People will pay you if you're not tracible. I imagine a gaggle of adorable, streetwise urchins know exactly how not to be found."

"Hang on," Bill interrupted, leaning forward slightly. "You were on the run? Are you like, an outlaw or something?"

Danni looked at her, trying not to feel rather smug at the question. "Yes, very much so," she boasted lightly. "There's a bounty on both our heads."

"Seriously?"

"No," the Doctor told her. "Of course not."

Bill didn't know which one to believe, after all she'd had her suspicions about the Doctor since the first time she'd stepped foot in the TARDIS and realised what he was. Danni, though, rolled her eyes like she was used to him contradicting her and that didn't settle anything at all. Were they outlaws? Was she travelling with some sort of known criminal gang? Or was it all a misunderstanding, because she didn't have much faith in Earth's police, let alone anyone else's.

"Kitty?" one of the children spoke up, tugging on the older girl's clothing. "Where's Spider?"

That was a question they had all been expecting, Kitty included, but no one had thought to prepare an answer for. After a little bit of fumbling they managed to distract the children from their friend's demise by giving them some food to quell the hunger that, no doubt, they felt pretty much all of the time.

Danni didn't like the idea of any children living on the streets, and she couldn't blame them for being wary of them as well. She'd had a few people offer her help when she was trying to find the Doctor, and she could never trust anyone enough to take it. Even beyond the looming threat of Missy over her head, the universe was a dark and cruel place and it seemed no one really liked to work outside their own agenda.

Plus, she knew the price on her head. She'd been told how valuable she had been long ago by a man trying to steal a spaceship full of dinosaurs and as she'd gotten older that estimate just seemed to be more and more substantiated.

She had to wonder how many children she had made homeless in her time. How many didn't have parents? How many she'd failed to save.

She watched the Doctor do what he did best, which was win over the crowd by reading the little children stories for what was probably the first time in their lives. He used to watch her with children, were these thoughts running through his head as well? She never understood why he continued to punish himself when all he had done was try to help. She hadn't tried to help. She'd just doomed children to die because she had been afraid.

He glanced up from the book he was reading from and caught her gaze. He shot her a smile and she couldn't help but send him one back in return. The children loved him. She could understand that. She loved to hear him tell stories.

He motioned her in from the doorway and, after a brief moment of deliberation, she decided that life was too short to listen from far away. It was a little bit of a struggle with the dress she was wearing, but she sat down next to him as he finished up.

"Okay, I'm wondering why the Frost Fair's on this part of the river," he started, closing his book once he got to the end of the short story. "I bet that at least one of you knows who paid Kitty to take people out on the ice."

The little girl who had given them the flier for the fair didn't hesitate to speak up. "It was the bad man, with a ship."

The other girl looked at her, alarmed. "Dottie!"

"A ship?" Danni asked, her brows furrowed. "Like, one on the Thames?"

"Not that kind of ship," the little boy spoke up. Again, the other girl was seemingly alarmed with how quickly her friends were giving away the information.

Kitty quickly reassured them though that even though the trio were strange, they could let them know about the man with the ship. Dottie held her hand out, pointing to the space on the back of her hand between her thumb and forefinger. "It's a drawing. Here, on his hand."

"A tattoo?" Danni asked. She looked up at the Doctor. "There's a lot of merchants around here, that could be quite a common tattoo."

"But we could ask around?" Bill added. The Doctor looked down at the pair, who were both staring up at him expectantly, waiting for him to either agree with their idea or offer his own.

He decided on the latter. He closed his book with a firm snap and stood up. "Boring!" he declared. "I know something that's much easier to find." He held his hand out, helping Danni off the floor. She took it with a giant grin, one which looked amazing on her face. He was so happy she was enjoying herself.

"Where are we going?" Bill asked, getting up herself.

The Doctor didn't reply to her, although only Bill was expecting him to. Instead he turned to the small group of children. "All right. You guys, hang tight! Laters."

He left, Bill trailing after him with a slightly disgusted look on her face. Danni offered the children a small smile. "Sorry," she said. "He really is trying to be young. He doesn't do very well." She picked up the Doctor's hat, the one he left behind, and hesitated for a moment before placing it back on the little blonde girl's head. "Here, you keep this. Suits you better."

_~0~0~0~_

Bill had to lift her skirt up slightly to keep up with the Time Lords, who were walking away from the small hideout with a sense of purpose that she was struggling to keep up with. She wasn't about to be left behind, though, so she sped forward with a million questions in her head.

"So, what's easier to find?" she asked them.

The Doctor, who was still holding his wife's hand, glanced behind them at Bill. "Conjecture," he replied. "There's something frozen under the Thames and it's eating people."

"Okay."

"Proposal. We need to get a closer look at it."

Danni slowed down slightly, shooting him a rather concerned look. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

In return he shot her a giant grin. "Oh yes," he replied. "Plan: let's get eaten."

_~0~0~0~_

"You have to come," the Doctor begged. "What's the fun if you're not in the water with us?"

Danni chucked a helmet onto the large cart. "One of us has to stay on the surface in case something goes wrong," she reasoned. "If we're all down there and our new friend starts to get too bitey, then we're fucked."

"That's not the reason," he protested. "Bill could very easily stay up here and we go down into the water together."

Danni stopped, a pair of belts in hand. "Bill doesn't know how to work the TARDIS. How is that going to help us when something thinks we're their next appetiser?"

"We could show her what to do. It's not that hard," he dismissed. "It's because you don't trust her."

She shot him a look. "I don't trust anyone," she pointed out.

"You trust me," he said. She didn't reply, continuing to load their two diving suits onto the cart. He'd insisted on not moving the TARDIS to the water, which she could understand, but instead moving the equipment closer on foot. She agreed, but they could have moved a little closer. And used a cart that no one needed to push.

He wanted to be historically accurate. She felt that even the idea of that had gone right out of the window. They'd agreed to disagree.

"You could go down," he tried. "I'll stay up here."

"But I don't know what you're looking for. You don't even know that," she replied. "How am I supposed to find it?"

"Because you're the one who usually points out what I'm missing. You could find it long before I even knew what it was."

"Now who's making excuses?" she shot back. "She's your companion, it's your idea and it's your adventure. So you can go into the freezing cold Thames looking for a giant fish we already know is there." She shook a pair of gloves at him. "Also, I can't help but notice that I'm the only one loading all the stuff onto this ridiculous cart."

He quickly grabbed a helmet to show his participation but held onto it, not loading anything at all and leaving Danni with the rest of the work. "What is the real reason?" he asked. "You know those diving suits are insulated. We've worn them in colder waters before."

She sighed, pressing her lips together as she tried to decide whether or not to tell him the thoughts in her head. They weren't new. They were never new. They just went over and over the same points and nothing ever got resolves, because the only way to resolve it was the one way the Doctor would never allow.

"One of us has to stay behind because, if something goes wrong and we can't stop it, one of us has to go back to the university," she stated, not looking at him but rather the gloves in her hand. "You've known the Master for longer than I ever will, but I know Missy better." She placed the gloves on the cart. "You can go in the water. I'll save you if something goes wrong, and you'll look really impressive for your companion."

"Danni…" he started and she shot him another warning look.

"Don't," she cut in. "Please, we have this conversation all the time. I love you purely for the effort of trying to make me forget, but I'm not going to and this is how I deal with it; by making sure that we're going to survive whatever is thrown our way."

He didn't argue, he just took her hand and gave it a squeeze before finally helping her load the rest of the equipment. He meant well, she knew he did, and she really had been trying to enjoy the trip for the adventure it was. It was all just baby steps, though. Maybe next time she would go in the water, but this time it was safer for everyone if she was above the surface whilst they were below. They both knew that her panic was a hindrance, not a help.

So she stood on the side of the Thames and watched Bill fall under the ice. She didn't think that she'd stared so hard in her many lives as she did when the Doctor followed. She just watched the ice, trying to see something, anything through the frosted surface. She couldn't see a thing, though. All she could do was hope with everything that he didn't get stuck down there and that she could be fast enough if he needed her. She even started worrying her hands together, dancing nervously on the spot, which wasn't something she had been prone to do since she'd regenerated.

The floor shook and she held her arms out to stop herself from falling. Th rumble came from under the ice, a deep noise that seemed to shake the ice itself. And Danni, once she caught herself, realised that her eyes had teared up just from the sound. Not because she was scared, but because it had sounded sad. It had felt lonely. It had felt like there was no hope left. Whatever was underneath the ice didn't want to be there, and she knew that feeling very well. It resonated deep inside her, where her own sadness still hung about. The worst thing in the universe was having no hope at all. Whatever was under there wasn't the monster, it was the victim.

It was just when she was starting to regret not going under the ice when they reappeared again. Her shoulders sagged in relief, even though she hadn't realised she was that tense in the first place. She also didn't care that he was soaking wet, or that Bill was watching as she rushed to meet them.

The Doctor took off his helmet. "Well, there was…" he started before she chucked herself at him, hugging him tightly. He froze underneath her for a moment, concerned that something was wrong before his brain kicked back into gear and he realised that it was him being under the ice that had been worrying her and she was just relieved that he was alright.

Bill took her own helmet off. She looked just as uncomfortable as Danni felt. "The sound it made. I couldn't hear you, but that noise, it's like I felt it in my bones, you know? It sounded like, like…"

"Despair," Danni finished for her. She took a step back from the Doctor and straightened herself out, ignoring the wet patch that now soaked her front. "Trapped, alone. A prisoner without hope of salvation, of being saved, of being free. Calling out into the universe but knowing they will never be heard. The sound of pure futility."

Bill looked at the other woman, who had looked down to stare at the ice like she was trying to see through it. "You could hear it too?"

"Oh, I suspect she heard it very well," the Doctor replied lowly, watching his wife. The look on her face concerned him. The emotion had all but fallen away, but he could see the thoughts working behind her eyes. "Danielle…"

She looked up at him. "Let's find them," she declared, her lips pulling up into an angry snarl. "I'll kill the bastard who's done this."


	9. The Choice of Humanity

The Doctor wanted to keep a close eye on his wife. For a lot of people a throwaway comment about wanting to kill someone was said in anger, but never had any force or intention behind it. He found humans especially culpable of being rather hyperbolic with their exclamations of emotions, so it was no surprise that he had come to expect that from his wife.

However, he wasn't sure that was the case. Her anger was always teetering on the balance of falling over into action rather than just words, and with the situation of the creature under the water being close to her own, he had to be a little careful. He couldn't let her genuinely hurt anyone else, for her own sake as well as theirs. Time had calmed her down and he trusted her, but still he just wanted to make sure she didn't fall back into old habits.

"Look, this isn't the first time we've been to a place like this," Danni said. They were peeking over a wooden wall to watch a bunch of men working. It looked like they were building bricks. They had been directed to a workhouse which had mysteriously exploded into life around the time that London started to freeze over. "Remember, with Silhouette? I managed to get some rather useful information."

"No," the Doctor said firmly. "We can do this the old-fashioned way."

"It still might be better if only one of us goes in," she protested. "I might not be blonde anymore, but the men were really friendly to me."

"Exactly." He glanced over the wall again. There were quite a few men working away, all in winter clothing and all looking like they'd been there for hours already. He didn't want to send his pretty, young wife into there. "We can all go in together. There is absolutely no need to split up."

"How are we getting in?" Bill asked. The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out his psychic paper. He flipped open the small leather wallet and showed her the inside. "You work for the palace?" she asked, looking slightly impressed.

Danni held back from glancing at Bill. While, yes, she had liked the way the young woman had been taking everything in with enthusiasm, she still had only expected to spend the day with her. It was now bordering into the second day and she really wanted to just get on with the task at hand without her. There was always an element of having to explain to other people what was going on that she and the Doctor just never experienced anymore. She found it a bit of a waste of time when there was someone – or something – that needed saving.

The Doctor shared a look with his wife. "Haven't heard that one in a while," he said.

"Can't exactly pull the 'President of the World' card here, can we?" she pointed out in reply. "Best play into the monarchy while they're still relevant."

"Wait, what?" Bill asked as she followed the Doctor. "President of the World? You?"

"No, of course not," he replied. "I would never. That's Danielle's job."

"Seriously?" she said with a laugh. She still couldn't quite work out if they were being serious or not when they said things like that.

"Well, I'm not right now," Danni said as if she was trying to dismiss it. "That doesn't happen for a couple of centuries. Plus, it's only in times of extreme international distress."

Bill blinked. "Really?" she asked. "That's pretty awesome."

Danni smirked at her. "Oh, I know," she boasted. "I've got a plane and everything. The Doctor likes poncing about in it."

"Who doesn't like poncing about in a big plane?" the Doctor countered, which Danni couldn't exactly argue with.

It was rather easy to just walk right into the yard, which spoke of the arrogance of the person who owned it. If there had been better security, they would have been concerned about people getting in. Without the security, it meant that they were confident on their ownership alone to keep people out.

"Oi. How'd you get through here?" a man called over as he made his way over to them. He seemed surprised, which again meant that they'd just expected people to stay out.

"Ah ha! At last, someone in authority," the Doctor replied, quickly trying to fall into character by pulling out the psychic paper again and showing the man.

The man read the paper and immediately believed what he saw. "Oh, I do apologise, sir. Does Lord Sutcliffe know you're here?"

"Does Lord Sutcliffe know we're here?" the Doctor repeated, scoffing slightly before looking at the two women. "Does Lord Sutcliffe know we're here?" he genuinely asked them.

"Of course he does, sweetie," Danni replied slowly, her brows furrowing in confusion. Had it really been so long that he'd forgotten how to do it?

"Lord Sutcliffe insisted we come," Bill added and the Doctor nodded.

"Oh, that Lord Sutcliffe, yes," he said. "There's no arguing with Sutcliffe when he puts his foot down. You'd better show us around."

It was quite obvious that the man agreed, leading them through the site. Everyone seemed to be working rather hard, shovelling and moulding the bricks up as foremen shouted out for them to work even faster. It felt very much of the times to be there, and Danni had to force herself to continue with her husband rather than just standing there and watching everyone work.

"Why all the fuss? It's just mud from the river, isn't it?" Bill asked.

"Mud is one word for it," the Doctor replied as they stopped at a table where the bricks were being laid out, possibly to dry.

"Is this even the right place? The creature's almost a mile away."

"The creature's head is almost a mile away," the Doctor pointed out. Bill picked up a brick, curious, and brought it up to her nose. "I assume we're now at the other end." He walked off, looking for the foreman as Danni tried not to smirk too much.

"He means it's shit," she told Bill, who shot her a look as she dropped the brick.

"I got that," she replied.

"You smelt it."

"Yeah, I noticed."

Bill, not too happy about how her mistake seemed to perk Danni up somewhat, walked over to the Doctor to find out what was going on. Danni did, for a moment, consider letting the other woman use the bottle of hand sanitiser that she kept on her at all times. However, she was still a little annoyed at the fact that the woman had joined them on her and the Doctor's first trip out for a while and she let herself enjoy the hilarity for a moment before looking around once again.

The bricks can't have been used for building. If they were then they wouldn't have been left out in the cold to harden, they would have been baked. It also wouldn't have been such a secret operation, after all who cared at all about actual bricks? The buildings around them were made out of brick, they were in plenty of homes and kids would pretend to build with them when they played. No one would hide bricks.

But something that money could be made from was a very different story. Something that as few people as possible could know about. Something that the workers themselves probably didn't know they were making. Something that was the size, shape and weight as a brick but something that definitely wasn't a brick.

"I'm not one to speculate," the foreman was saying as Danni rejointed the group. The Doctor was nodding along, obviously very easily getting the man to talk.

"But you can't help it because you're a man of intelligence," the Doctor replied.

Danni appeared at his side. "It's fuel," she stated and the Doctor looked down at her.

"You think so?" he asked and she nodded.

"Bricks that aren't bricks? Secret entrances?" She looked at the foreman. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"They won't let us smoke in here, so I assumed so," he replied. "Fuel for the furnaces, ma'am."

"Excellent reasoning," the Doctor told them both. "Lord Sutcliffe appreciates an enquiring mind."

The foreman looked rather proud of himself. "Well, I keep my ear to the ground, you know."

"And what is the ground saying these days?"

The man looked at the table of drying bricks. He seemed a bit uncertain of what he was about to say, checking for anyone who might have been listening without realising the three people he shouldn't have been telling were in front of him. "That this stuff burns a thousand times longer than coal?" he replied, a little unsure. "Hotter, too. Hotter than they can measure."

"Excellent," the Doctor replied slowly, now looking at the bricks in a different light. Danielle was right, it turned out. "First class."

"I'm right, aren't I, sir?" the man asked and the Doctor looked up at him.

"Oh, there's no stopping you. You keep this up, you won't be working in this yard for very long."

The man straightened out his jacket. "Oh, you think not?" he asked, hopefully.

"Oh, we can guarantee that," Danni told him. "If you are as clever as you are making out."

"You know what else they say?" the man started. He was suddenly very eager to do anything to get himself out of the yard. Unfortunately, he was probably just digging himself a bigger hole. "They say it even burns under water."

_~0~0~0~_

The Sutcliffe House was exactly what you would expect of a stately home in the early 1800's. It had iron railings around the outside to keep people out, and was built of bright, clean stone that made it stand out against the grey backdrop of London. It also had the name 'Sutcliffe' in big lettering above the double front doors, just in case anyone didn't know who the house belonged to.

"Urgh," Danni said as she hoisted her skirt up a little to walk up the stairs to the front of the house. "Look at it. It's so… urgh."

"Posh, you mean?" the Doctor asked.

"Extravagant," she corrected. "No one had ever needed a house this big. Or stairs this wide. You could get three elephants up here and still have room to breathe." She looked up at the door. "And what's with the nameplate? Does he frequently forget who he is? Or where he lives? Is it like when theme parks give areas of their parking lots wacky names so you can find your way back at the end of the day?"

The Doctor found her comments highly amusing, especially considering they lived in an infinitely sized time machine. Neither of them had been stupid enough to put their name on it, though.

"Perhaps he had a lot of things," the Doctor reasoned. "Maybe he had a bunch of relatives that came by for Christmas one year and never left?"

"Maybe he is the relative who never left," Danni offered.

Bill couldn't quite understand how neither of them were nervous. "So, this guy has a pet monster that turns people into fuel and we're just rocking up at his door?" she asked.

"That's his door, this is us rocking," the Doctor replied before ringing the doorbell. "If we're going to stop him, we need to know where he started."

"Meaning?"

"Which planet is he from," Danni replied as the door was opened by an old butler. The Doctor held up his psychic paper, which was once again enough to get them into the house and taken to the drawing room. It was large, as the house suggested, with books lining two of the walks in large bookcases. There were ornate chairs to one side, and a fireplace that kept the room warm compared to the snow. Danni was immediately drawn to it, and the ornaments that sat on the mantlepiece, whereas the Doctor spotted the orrery in the middle of the room and couldn't resist playing with it.

"You know it's not accurate," she called over to him.

"It is for the time," he replied as he moved the planets into the correct positions. "That is probably the best we can hope for."

"At least it proves he's not an alien," she commented as she picked up a vase to look at the base. Aynsley China was quite a name, it was a shame it wasn't an original.

The Doctor paused. "What makes you say that?"

She turned her torso so she could nod at the orrery. "Does it annoy you?"

"Does what annoy me?"

"The fact that the orrery isn't quite right?"

He looked at it again. "Of course," he replied.

"There you go then," she said. "An alien who knows better is annoyed at the fact that it's not to scale. He's human. I'd bet on it."

The Doctor continued to stare at the orrery. She wasn't wrong, it really bothered him that it wasn't quite right but he also knew that humanity didn't quite get a hang of their solar system for a few hundred years, so he couldn't expect more from them. Still, just because they were alien didn't mean they were also smart. He was also living proof that you could be insanely clever and still an idiot.

"Night out?" he suggested and she nodded.

"You're on."

Bill, who again just watched the two have almost a full conversation without her, was just confused. "What just happened?"

The Doctor quickly looked at her, like he just remembered she was there. "She wanted to bet," he reasoned, as if it cleared everything up. It didn't.

"Yeah, so?"

Danni walked back over to her, adjusting her outfit now she was away from the fire. "If I'm right and Sutcliffe is human, then he owes me a date. If he's an alien, then I owe him one. It's something my mum and dad used to do when we all lived together."

"You have a mum and dad?" Bill asked, sounding surprised and Danni's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Everyone comes from somewhere," she countered, suddenly feeling ridiculous for letting the reason slip. She hadn't meant to justify herself, but it had just slipped out. It was what had gotten her into so much trouble with Missy, apparently her skills at keeping things to herself were lacking again.

"Well, yeah, of course," Bill replied, realising she had once again managed to offend Danni with her runaway mouth. "I-I didn't mean that. It's just… well, you two are alien, and old and… well, it's just strange to think of you two having parents, that's all."

Danni stared at her for a moment. "They're dead," she stated bluntly. "So don't think too much on it."

She turned and headed back to the mantlepiece, suddenly back in a terrible mood. Bill cringed to herself. She knew how it was when someone would bring up a parent as if they were alive, and the pain that never quite went away when you had to correct them. It was always a little, constant reminder that someone important was missing form your life.

She quickly looked to the Doctor. "I didn't mean it like that," she told him. "It's just, you know, you two feel so much bigger than everyone else. It's weird to think that someone put either of you into time outs."

The Doctor knew what she meant. He knew that everyone they met, eventually, saw the pair as some large, detached presence that made it hard for them to see the couple in ordinary situations. He knew that Bill's brain sometimes took a moment to catch up with what she was actually saying and that had been one of the things that had intrigued him when he'd called her to his office. He also knew that no matter how much she apologised, Danni had much more reason to distrust her than she would ever have trusting anyone and it really wouldn't matter.

"Oh, trust me, we've had our share of time outs," he told her before walking over. "Look, Bill, I need you to leave the talking to me."

She glanced over and Danni and thought that maybe he was right. "Yeah…"

"You're about to meet a man, alien or otherwise, for whom human beings are raw material," he continued just in case she thought about protesting. "Who grinds up children for profit. What we are here for is one thing. Information. We get that with diplomacy and tact. Charm, if necessary."

She sighed heavily. "Okay. I get it," she replied, sitting down on an armchair to get comfortable.

"Always remember, Bill. Passion fights, but reason wins."

The door opened before both Bill and Danni could roll their eyes at him and a man who obviously considered himself a 'gentleman' walked in. He was wearing a bright blue jacket which stood out against the greyness of the time period, with white trousers. He was carrying the Doctor's psychic paper, which had been taken to him to prove who they were.

"Doctor Disco, from the Fairford Club! Obviously, one aspires to membership, but to actually be considered for…" he said as he walked over to the Doctor, blatantly sucking up to a person who he thought was of great importance. He seemed to have all of the charm and decorum of someone who had quite a bit of money for the time period.

Of course, then he had to go and take a look at the people the Doctor had brought with him. His eyes fell onto Bill, who was sat on his chair, and the anger that broke out on his face took away any chance of any of them thinking he was a decent human being.

"Who, who let this creature in here?" He raged, stuttering as he shook the leather wallet at Bill, who was simply stunned at the bile that had come from his mouth. "On your feet, girl, in the presence of your betters."

She stared at him, offended and absolutely baffled by the hatred she was receiving just because she was sat there. She did feel slightly smug, if not incredibly disappointed, that her original reservations about the trip had proven to be somewhat true and at the very least, if she took the high ground over the arsehole in front of her, she could claim that she had been right all along.

She wasn't much fussed about taking the high ground and she was about to retaliate when the Doctor tapped Sutcliffe on the shoulder. She tried to calm down, remembering what the Doctor had told her, when he pulled his right arm back and punched him straight in the face.

Danni let out a large bark of delighted laughter as the Doctor shook his hand, trying to stop his knuckles from throbbing. "He's human. Thirty-one years of age. Low on iron."

"Yeah, that was pretty convincing racism for an extra-terrestrial," she replied, looking down at the man on the floor, who was currently unconscious.

"In our experience only humans tend to have that ability to be that ignorant," Danni agreed as a group of men came in, obviously hearing the ruckus that her husband had caused. They were very quickly tied up, arms behind their backs as Sutcliffe was taken care of by his servants.

He pushed something cool up against his swollen eye as he looked at the from the chair Bill had sat in, leg crossed over the other. "Well, you're not from the Fairford Club," he stated.

"The creature in the river, where did it come from?" the Doctor asked.

"Who the devil are you people?"

"Answer the question," Danni replied and he shot her a distasteful look.

"You are not much better than the company you keep," he told her. "Do not address me unless spoken to."

The Doctor's hands clenched behind his back, his anger flaring again at the cruel way the man was speaking about both his wife and his friend.

"I will remember that when the blackeye my husband has given you has proven to have knocked some manners into that inbred, infantile brain of yours," Danni replied calmly. Bill pressed her lips together to stop herself from smirking. The Doctor shot her a sideways glance, calming down just slightly. If he'd not been tied up, he was sure he would have had punched him yet again in another bout of uncharacteristic violence. Luckily for him, his wife could hold her own.

"How dare you…" Sutcliffe started, shifting to stand up so he could shout at her.

"Where did it come from?" she snapped firmly.

"Nowhere!" he retorted angrily before sitting back down. "It's always been there. The secret's been passed down in the family since, I don't know when. As far back as records go."

"Then tell me, do you also keep a record of how many it's killed?" the Doctor asked.

"Please," Sutcliffe dismissed. "People know the ice is dangerous, yet they will insist on their festivities. That's hardly my fault."

"Don't sell yourself short. This is the biggest Frost Fair in decades, and that's down to you."

"It is?" Bill asked, surprised.

"It is?" Danni asked at the same time, also surprised.

"The man holding me has a tattoo on his left hand," he explained. "And that's not all, is it? The circus performers, the elephant, that's all you."

He took a moment to reply, obviously thinking very carefully about his answer. "I made the most of the situation. It's the first proper freeze it's caused in years."

"Why? Production down, huh? Not enough people dying?" Bill snapped.

"Girl, you show the ignorance of all your kind," he replied and she took a step forward, ready to finish what the Doctor had started. She was pulled back by the man who had tied her up. "Without that beast, my mills would rely on coal mines, and men die in coal mines all the time."

"I preferred it when you were alien."

"When I was?"

"Well, that explained the lack of humanity," the Doctor replied. "What makes you so sure that your life is worth more than those people out there on the ice? Is it the money? The accident of birth that puts you inside the big, fancy house?"

"I help move this country forward. I move this Empire forward."

"He was always human," Danni replied, staring at the man in front of her with a rising contempt. "It's the hallmark of the species. They will all disregard humanity the moment it is not beneficial." She nodded towards him. "The stink of self-indulgence and arrogance from him taints the world like it does from every other ape that roams this planet. Using people, using children, to his own end won't ever touch the sides. Keeping a lonely, kind, helpless creature trapped won't touch his heart because he has no humanity. Because, ironically, he is very human."

"I'm afraid your help is right on the money," Sutcliffe told the Doctor. "I guess that's why we hire them, isn't it?" He turned to his own help. "If they know about the beast, then others must, too. We bring the plan forward."

"When, sir?"

"Now! In daylight."

_~0~0~0~_

"Do you really think all that?" Bill asked Danni as they were marched out of the house. Danni didn't look at her, instead paying attention to the steps up ahead so she didn't stumble down them now that she didn't have the ability to hold her skirt up. "All that stuff about humans?"

"Yes," she replied simply. "I have met a handful of humans that break the mould. Most of them do not."

"That is not true," the Doctor argued, only to be shook by the man holding him. He looked back at his captor. "Do you mind? I'm trying to have a conversation here as you inevitably march us to our doom."

"Our doom?" Bill repeated.

"The creature in the water," Danni clarified for her offhandedly. "You have to admit that most humans we meet on these adventures do not tend to be a beacon of morality."

"What about your new friend, Kyle?"

"Kyle is harmless," she replied. "I did say most, not all." She was also told, in no uncertain terms, to be quiet as well and she glared up at her captor. "You know, when this all comes together and we end up beating you, being rude to me is not going to help you. I can't abide rudeness."

"Which is surprising, considering how rude you're being," Bill pointed out as they were shoved into a waiting carriage.

"It's not rude when I'm right."

_~0~0~0~_

No one seemed to pay attention to the three people being marched, tied, across the ice by the burly men that Sutcliffe employed. They were too busy enjoying the festivities and that was what he had been counting on. After all, he was the one paying to keep them distracted enough that they could become fish food.

They were taken into a tent to the side of the Front Fair, full of barrels with wires coming off them and to a panel hanging off the centre pole. The man holding Danni turned to Sutcliffe whilst Bill and the Doctor were pushed towards the pole.

"They won't all fit in here, sir," he told the man. Sutcliffe rolled his eyes.

"Just tie the little one to one of the shelving units," he instructed. He nodded and marched Danni to the back of the tent, just out of reach of the Doctor, and pushed her down to the ground as well. She swallowed hard, trying to ignore the feeling of being tied up again.

"You-You know, the only person I normally let do this to me is my husband," she stated, trying to keep her mind on the present. After all, rope was pretty weak in the grand scheme of things. She'd been held down by chains and metal cuffs before and she found rope to be uncomfortable, but relatively harmless. She'd eventually be able to escape from it. "But I can make an exception for you, I suppose."

Her hearts were picking up pace already even though she knew she had bigger things to worry about – like the barrels of gunpower they were surrounded by. She really didn't want to panic right now. She really didn't want to panic in front of all these strangers. Or Bill, for that matter, who she knew would immediately be curious and be unable to let it go, even when she was told to.

"It could be rum," Bill was saying as Danni started taking slow, shaky breaths. She was fine. It was just rope. "Rum came in barrels."

The Doctor shook his head. "Nah, smell that," he told her. "It's their—" He couldn't take his attention of his wife, who was sat with her eyes closed and with no witty retort to hide how uncomfortable she was. He knew she had been fine until the moment they had been separated. The quicker they could get free, the quicker he could help her. "It's their home-made rocket fuel, redeployed as explosive." He looked up at Sutcliffe. "It's a little reckless, don't you think? Half the fair disappears into the river, the secret of your success won't be a secret anymore."

"Hardly. The city will pause to mourn a fireworks display gone tragically awry, and the creature will be fed. By spring, this will be a footnote in history. That is progress."

"No," Danni spoke up, her eyes still closed. "That is not progress. That's just you being a cu—"

"Danielle," the Doctor cut in. He was glad she was talking, even if it was just her trying to distract herself from being restrained against her will, but he also knew that a potty mouth wasn't going to get them anywhere.

Sutcliffe turned to his help, not deeming what she said even worth acknowledging. "They're bringing the elephant out presently. We won't get bigger crowds than that, so make sure you're off the ice by noon."

"Noon? There's no way you can keep us here that long," Bill said as the grand gentleman left the tent. "We'll just scream our heads off."

The Doctor immediately began to shake his head. "No. No, please, please, please…"

She didn't listen as she cried out with one, drawn-out word. "HELP!"

The henchman was neither fazed nor annoyed as he, too, left the three in the tent to be blown up. The people outside were not pulled to the noise as they were too busy having a good time to even hear the woman's cry. The Doctor just winced and Danni began tugging at her restraints to see if she could break through them easily.

Bill coughed as she finally stopped shouting, having used all the air in her lungs to shout. The Doctor started shuffling on the spot. "If you're quite finished, I could use some help."

"What are you…" Bill asked, feeling him move.

"Sonic screwdriver, inside pocket," he instructed. The moment he felt her starting to move he looking over at Danielle. "Danni? Danni, are you alright?"

"Been better," she replied softly. "Are you going to be long?"

"No, Bill is just getting me my screwdriver. Do you have yours?"

"No, didn't fit in the dress. I really could use your help."

"I won't be a moment," he told her, grunting slightly as he lurched to the side. It came flying out of his pocket, just out of his reach but in Bill's. "It's out of my pocket. Bill is just going to kick it over to me."

"I don't need a running commentary, sweetie," Danni told him and he nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Probably not too helpful."

Bill kicked the screwdriver over to his hand, and once again he was grateful for a companion with long legs. It wasn't hard for him to twist it in his hands and point it at the ropes. "Not long now," he told Danni.

"Again, don't need the commentary, just as quick as you can."

Her tone was biting and Bill frowned to herself. The Doctor was obviously trying to calm his wife down, but all she seemed to be doing was getting annoyed. That's all she seemed to do. Her mother used to say that people were only that miserable because their life was so full of hurt that it over spilled, and that it was their loved ones' jobs to bring it back down to the boil. The Doctor really did seem to be doing his best, which endeared him to Bill just a little more. She knew people who definitely were not that way inclined.

Her thoughts were once again pulled away from the strange couple from outer space when a green light came in from underneath the tent's front entrance. "Um, Doctor?"

"Huh?" he asked before spotting the light coming towards them. "Oh, hello!"

"How are you doing that?"

"Er…"

"Oh my god, it's the screwdriver!" Danni cried out. "It makes a noise. People make a noise. They don't do it when there's lot of people because hunting a crowd is a bad idea. But a drunk person, a kid, someone lost on the ice on their own makes a lot of sound in the silence and the sonic is louder and stranger than footsteps. There, you know. Now, please, get me out of this rope before I start really panicking!"

She spoke quickly, almost frantically and neither the Doctor nor Bill were convinced she wasn't already panicking. The Doctor could feel it starting to break through the barriers between them and he nodded quickly.

"I am only going to be a minute," he promised. "Just breathe, you're fine."

"I am not fine!" she exclaimed. "We're surrounded by barrels of explosives, there's a hungry and pissed off fish underneath us and we're all tied up like we're a bunch of kebabs. Please tell me how that is fine?!"

The front flap to the tent lifted up and a henchman walked back in. "What are you doing?" he demanded, storming over to the Doctor and snatching the sonic screwdriver from him. "Give me that!"

He seemed intrigued by it for a moment, until he noticed the green light underneath the ice. It was quickly joined by more and more and they began to circle him. He began panicking himself, backing away but the lights swirled around him faster and faster.

"Turn it off. There's a button on the side," the Doctor instructed, but the man was too scared to be able to work it correctly. "Here! Give it here!" He chucked it over to the Doctor, who had managed to get himself free before the screwdriver had been taken off him. Unfortunately, he was too late and the man fell through a hole that appeared in the ice. It immediately closed back up and it was like he was never there. "Afraid it has a knack to it," the Doctor muttered to himself.

Danni didn't notice the man fall through the hole, or the fact that Doctor had managed to get himself free from his own restraints. She had stopped paying attention the moment the henchman had come into the tent. She was tired of waiting; she knew what happened when she did. She'd started moving her arms from side to side, rubbing the rope against the wood as she tried to loosen any of the knots that kept her in place. The rope scratched against her skin but she didn't really care. Wounds would heal, but her panic felt like it would never go away.

The Doctor scrambled over to her, grabbing her shoulders to stop her moving. "Danielle," he said firmly to get her attention. "If you don't stop moving, I can't help you."

She met his gaze and she nodded, eyes a little wider than he would have liked but she seemed relatively calm. The last time he'd seen her restrained against her will she hadn't been expecting it. When Ashildr had tricked them into putting the cuffs on she had screamed. This time, at the very least, she seemed calm enough to let him undo the rope and toss it away.

"Ready?" he asked before helping her up to her feet. She didn't say a word, just brushed her dress back into shape and he knew that she was fine, if not a little shaken. So he turned his attention to Bill, who was still staring at the ice where the man had fallen through.

"Bill," he called to her. "Miss Potts?" She looked at him. "I need you with us."

"I, I…" she stuttered, unable to think straight at the sight of another death.

"Things to do, Bill. Decisions to make," the Doctor snapped, giving her something to focus on. "What are we going to do about Tiny?"

She frowned. "Tiny?"

"The creature. The loch-less monster. The not-so-little mermaid," he clarified. "Are we just going to leave her down there?"

"No," Danni replied, because there was no other option. "She didn't ask to be trapped, did she? When you're finally free, you don't wait around to smell the roses. You run, and you run fast."

"You don't know that," Bill snapped. "You can't possibly know what will happen when we let her go. She might burst up out of the water and eat a hundred people right off of Southbank! She could eat half of London!"

"So she deserves to be trapped for the rest of her life? Picking off people for scraps, longing to be free?" She jabbed down at the ice underneath them. "You heard her crying! Are you really that heartless to leave her sobbing on her own?"

"Why would you even care?" Bill asked, just as angrily. "I thought you didn't like humanity. What do you care about some monster trapped all alone?"

The Doctor waited for a moment to see if Danni would correct Bill, but she just pressed her lips together. It wasn't his story to tell, but if any of them knew what it was to be free after being contained, it was her. He knew he'd been in that confession dial for billions of years, but he only remembered his last go around, for which he was very grateful. Her time with Missy had been long, and full of pain and a mismatch of memories they were both now sure she could never piece back together again.

She looked up at him and there was no look of upset, or anger. She just looked terribly done with everything. "She's your companion, you deal with this," she told him bluntly.

"Danni…" he started but she was already walking out of the tent.

"You deal with it," she repeated, with no room for argument. The tent door fell closed behind her and the Doctor turned to Bill.

"Where-Where is she going?" Bill asked him.

"I suspect away from you," he replied. "Miss Potts, do you know why I chose to tutor you?"

"I don't know, because I smile too much?" she shot back.

"No, it was because you came to my class when you didn't have to," he replied. "Most people in my classes don't quite understand what I'm trying to say, and you were no different. It was just that they had to be there, they'd paid money and its part of their lives. But you, despite not having to be there, despite not understanding, came day after day just because you felt like you were learning something. And when you did, even if you didn't understand it, you smiled because there's a part of you that understands that knowledge is everything."

Bill shifted on the spot, uncomfortable at the praise because she wasn't used to getting it, and so bluntly. "What does that have to do with anything?" she asked.

"I chose you, out of everyone else, because you can see the value in chasing down a path of knowledge even if you don't understand the way," he explained. "You just needed guidance to make the most of the journey, where to follow the road and where to stray. You keep straying down the path that is Danielle, you need to stop." He motioned to the door. "Her being here, right now, is a miracle unto itself and the more you crave knowledge from her, the more she will run away. There are bigger and more important things to spend that big brain of your on, Miss Potts, than fulfilling the need to gain gossip on my wife."

"Like what?" she asked and he nodded downwards.

"The loch-less monster," he reminded her. "You need to decide what we are going to do."

"Why is it up to me?" Bill asked.

"Because it can't be up to me," he said softly. "Your people, your planet. I serve at the pleasure of the human race, and right now, that's you. Give me an order. Not long till noon. I need an order."

Bill looked out the flap of the doorway, where the bright light from outside was streaming in along with the noise of the festivities. She looked down at the ice, where a creature was trapped that could kill them all. And then she thought about the noise it made, the way she felt it rattle inside of her and how she could feel the despair the creature was feeling.

"Save her," she begged. The Doctor grinned and turned to the wires and the explosives, quickly getting to work.

"I'll take care of this. You get everyone off the ice."

Bill nodded firmly and turned, rushing out into what she had expected to be festivities. Instead, she saw people moving off the ice, being ushered by each other. On one side she saw Kitty, motioning with her hands to some people to get moving. She rushed over and grabbed her arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Getting everyone off the ice," Kitty replied like Bill should have known better. "Your mate said everyone needed getting off the ice."

Bill looked around, trying to spot Danni and wishing that she could find her with her mind like the Doctor could. She spotted her, again, across the way ushering her own crowd of people to leave the ice. She patted Kitty on the arm.

"Keep going," she encouraged. "We need to get as many people as we can safe."

She made her way through the crowd to Danni, somehow managing to not get trampled on by the mass exodus of people leaving. "How did you know what was going to happen?" she asked. "Did the Doctor tell you with those mind powers?"

Danni shot her a look that made her feel like she was a little bit delusional. "No, no mind powers," she replied slowly, as if Bill was a little bit confused. "The Doctor chooses his friends well. There was no other choice in this. He keeps the company of good people."

"I'm sorry that I keep saying things to offend you," Bill said, truly meaning it. "I need to think more before I speak. My mum always said that my mouth can run away from me." Danni shrugged.

"Let's just get people off the ice, yeah?"

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor, as he always did, managed to pull a plan out of thin air and save the creature with the least amount of damage the surrounding area. And, as he and Danni both had suspected, the creature did not rise up and gobble up half of London. Instead, she sped off into the ocean where should could swim freely, and far away from mankind.

Bill was utterly amazed that the Doctor had managed to pull it off and no one else had to die. She knew they had done the right thing the moment she had told the Doctor to save the creature, but hearing her happy cry as she escaped the Thames made it all worth it. That was what she was slowly coming around to see; that it was always worth it.

Stepping back out into the Doctor's office felt almost surreal considering how they'd spent the last couple of days. None of them had gotten changed, but she felt like she was walking out onto a different planet yet again. Still, though, nothing had changed since they'd left and she felt like everything should have. So, she immediately dropped onto her phone to try and find out what change they'd made to history by saving the sea creature.

The door opened as the Doctor starting looking through the papers on his desk. He was always unpleasantly reminded about just how much paperwork came with being a professor. He really didn't appreciate it.

"Alright, I've brought you all some tea," Nardole declared as he stepped in, carrying a tray like it was the most delicate thing in the world. "I put a bit of coffee in it, as well, just to give it some flavour. I'm sure it will warm you both up whilst you…" He trailed off as finally looked up from his balancing act and saw the Doctor in full Georgian era clothes. "Oh sir, no. This is unacceptable. This is beyond unacceptable. This is naughty!"

The Doctor shot him a look. "Language."

Bill flipped through her search results, becoming more and more confused. "I don't get it. London, 1814. Monster, sea creature, serpent, really, really big fish. Nothing."

"Sir, you said you wouldn't be going off-world," Nardole continued to scold. The Doctor opened his jacket, showing off his clothes pointedly.

"Do these look like off-world clothes to you?" he retorted.

"But, sir, your wife!" he exclaimed. "You know how angry she was last time; she is not going to be happy to find out you left her alone again!"

"Oh, do be quiet, Nardole," Danni snapped as she stepped out of the TARDIS. He stared at her, shocked, as she was dressed to match both the Doctor and Bill. "I could hear you from the other side of the console."

"Ma'am! I must protest!" he started, hands clenching in frustration. "You said…"

"I know what I said. I don't want him going off and leaving me alone with the Vault ever again," Danni cut in. "And, look, he didn't."

"Your mother…"

"My mother told you to listen to me," she said firmly.

"I don't understand. How could it not have been headline news?" Bill asked, ignoring the argument going on around her as she focused on what she felt was the more important information.

"Humans have a rather large knack for ignoring the obvious that is going on around them," Danni told her. "Along with all the drunk people who were there that day, they probably brushed it under the rug like everything else."

"Sir," Nardole said with a harsh edge, trying to get his attention. "We need to talk. Your oath."

"Give us a coin," the Doctor replied.

"What?

"Give me a coin. We'll toss for it. Heads, the TARDIS stays put." He looked over at his wife and new friend, a soft smile on his face. He knew, despite everything, nothing was going to stop them now. "Tails, you leave us alone."

_~0~0~0~_

Nardole tried not to stomp around the basement, but it was very hard when he had such heavy legs and he was in such a foul mood. He grumbled to himself as he checked over the Vault yet again before clocking off for the evening and having some down time. His 'me' time was important and he refused to let any Time Lord ruin it.

"Leave them alone, huh," he grumbled. "Chance would be a fine thing. I didn't ask to be re-assembled, did I? And I certainly didn't ask to be Professor Song's babysitter."

He turned to head away when there was a knocking on the door of the Vault. Three loud, hard knocks that froze him on the spot and sent his panic systems into overdrive. "Knocking," he whispered to himself before turning, trying to hold his nerve. "What was that about it?" he called to the Vault. "Knocking. What was that about? No one's going to open the door, just because you're knocking!"

Again, she knocked and again he felt his panic rise. "Oh, getting cocky now, are you? Why? What do you think you know?" His circuits ran cold as a terrifying thought hit him. "What has he told you?"

All she did, all she could do, was knock in return and a million ideas rushed through Nardole's rather amazing head. His protectiveness over his new mismatched family flared and he stood tall as he glared at the Vault from behind his glasses. "Because, yeah, he may have a little friend now and, yeah, he may be a little bit distracted but I'll tell you something; he'll never be distracted enough. And as long as I am here, as long as we both are still here, you are going nowhere. And you are not getting anywhere near her."

Before his nerve left him completely, he turned and walked out of the basement, hearing Missy bang after him until he reached the surface against. Then he was quick, rushing up the stairs and to the Doctor's office, where he entered without even knocking.

The Doctor rolled his eyes as he looked up from his desk. He was just finishing up for the night, he really didn't want to have another lecture from Nardole. "I thought we agreed you'd leave us alone," he said lowly.

"Sir, there was knocking," he replied. The Doctor paused his movements for just a moment, his hands locking up in a wave of panic.

"Was it…"

"No, not that, sir," Nardole quickly dismissed and the Doctor relaxed slightly. "Just ordinary knocking, but knocking none the less."

Knocking was worrying, Nardole was right, but there was a certain pattern that could make them all collectively take notice. He was always a little concerned that the Vault could only hold back so much, and if that sound of four reached his wife…

"Thank you, Nardole. You can leave, now."

Nardole didn't like his dismissive attitude. "But, sir, what if she knows?" he asked. "If she senses that Danni has been off on an adventure, if she knows that she's finally starting to let her guard down, who knows what it will inspire in her?"

He looked up, annoyed. "I will handle it," he said firmly. "As long as Danielle is kept strictly away from the Vault everything will continue to go as plan. You can leave, now."

Not knowing whether he should tell the Doctor that his wife was still rather drawn to the Vault below them, or keeping his word – which he'd given to River – to do as she said and not tell the Doctor, he flustered on the spot for a moment before storming out and into his office.

The Doctor didn't have time to acted concerned about what the knocking meant, because the TARDIS door opened and Danni appeared. She'd changed into something more comfortable and she smiled slightly when she saw that he was alone. "Did I hear Nardole?" she asked and he nodded.

"He's retiring to his office for the night. Probably to do some of those crosswords he is terrible at," the Doctor lied effortlessly. "Are you off to bed?"

"In a minute, yeah," she replied. She stepped out, letting the door close gently behind her. "I just wanted to say thank you, for the trip."

"It didn't exactly go as I'd planned," he admitted.

"What, you didn't plan for a sea monster in the Thames?" she teased lightly. She perched herself on the edge of his desk, her legs dangling both comically and adorably over the edge. "Thank you for encouraging me to go. I enjoyed it, it felt like old times."

He picked up her hand. "Here is to many more new times," he replied, placing a kiss on her palm. "I won't be a moment. Perhaps we could catch up on some rest together."

"That never happens," she pointed out but slid off the desk and back to the floor. "Love you."

"Love you too, my Pet," he said honestly and without shame. The door shot behind her and rubbed his hand over his mouth. What was he going to do? He genuinely thought that he could teach Missy how to be good. That if Danni saw her change then she would find comfort in the universe again, and in turn may start to forgive herself. And, for his own selfish reasons, because he never wanted to go through losing her again. It was almost too much to bear the first time, he couldn't survive it happening again.

But why was she knocking now, the first time Danni had been purposefully off in the TARDIS since they'd set up home at the university? Did she know? And if she did, then how?

He stood up, shaking the thoughts and pushing the worry away. He knew the Vault was safe. She was never getting out. He just had to be a bit more observant when he visited her to see if he was missing anything. He just had to do his job better. Nothing in the universe was more dangerous than the woman behind that door, right?

Unbeknownst to him, across the universe and in a different time, another TARDIS stood. It couldn't fly, it couldn't move, but the pilot smiled to himself as he scanned through all records of the Time Child he could find on Earth, knowing he was finding his ticket to freedom.

_~0~0~0~_

_Sorry for the extended break. I never intended to be gone for so long, but real life absolutely kicked my arse last year. Here's hoping I can get back to writing again properly :)_


	10. Shaking Things Up

The Doctor looked out over the courtyard underneath his window. There were students still crossing as they headed to their evening classes, so even though the sun was setting there was still quite the bit of activity on campus. He wasn't one for people watching, usually, but he found himself stood at his window and watching the world outside.

He smiled slightly as he was drawn immediately to Danni, who was walking in a group of young people she had very quickly seemed to pick up. As much as he would always crave her time and her attention – heaven knew how selfish he could be when he allowed it – it was nice to see her finally relaxing. She felt like she was much less friendly this time around, but he knew better. She'd barely had time to settle into her decision and she'd already gained a gaggle of humans.

The door opened behind him and he turned to see Bill slip in, ready for her next tutoring session. "Everything alright?" she asked, as she was used to seeing him sat at his desk when she turned up. "Did you see something? Are we under attack? Is something coming? Is it Heather, is she back?"

He tried not to roll his eyes. "No, unfortunately we are not under threat of an imminent alien invasion," he told her. "You're here to learn, not to panic."

She sat down on the other side of his desk and let her bag fall heavily to the ground. "I think I've got enough reason to be concerned pretty much all of the time."

He walked over to his small library that he had set up on the side of his office. "If you spend all of your time worrying then you will not get anything else done," he pointed out. "Just enjoy the moments as they come."

He grabbed a book and chucked it over to her, which she caught with ease. "Oh, that reminds me," she said as she started flicking through it without waiting to see what she was looking for. "I'm moving in a couple of weeks, and I was thinking that instead of hiring a taxi, driving _all_ the way over there with my stuff crammed in…"

"Fine, you can use the TARDIS," he interrupted and she grinned happily. "But she isn't supposed to be used to ferry things about. I'm not picking you up when you've got too much shopping, or if your Christmas dinner hasn't finished cooking, or if you don't want to use iPlayer."

Bill frowned. "iPlayer?" she repeated. The Doctor shook his head, as if dismissing her confusion rather than dismissing the thought of his previous companion. Clara still would, on occasion, creep up in his thoughts and he couldn't voice them because no one he was with would understand. Plus, no matter how long it had been, he still couldn't quite get over how she had mirrored his own actions and had tried to kill Danielle. He hated having his own mistakes highlighted.

"The TARDIS is much more than a means of transport. So, just the once," he continued without explaining. That was something Bill was used to, so she let it drop and went back to looking through the book.

"Where do you get all these books from?" she asked. "Does the TARDIS make them? 'cause this is one of the textbooks that you set for the class, and there is no way you can buy a leatherbound version of it. Textbooks don't come leather-bound anymore. They come in boring colours for way too much money."

"The TARDIS doesn't do everything for me," he replied. "Sometimes you've just got to know the CEO to a famous publisher and save his life."

Bill shot him a look. "Seriously?"

He smirked. "A lot of fingers in a lot of pies," he said, giving his fingers a little wiggle. "Now, how about you turn to page 193 and we stop all this chatter."

_~0~0~0~_

"I'm sure," Danni insisted, pressing her phone to her ear. "If you think something is wrong, stay."

"_Perhaps you should come too,_" the Doctor replied. "_Creepy house, weird noises; two heads would be better than one_."

"If there something wrong then I'll just get in the way," she replied. "I trust you to do whatever is necessary to keep everyone safe. I'll keep an eye on everything back here."

"_You just don't want to be in the company of a bunch of university students_," he accused.

"I really don't," she agreed, groaning at the very idea. "I've just got over that hurdle with Kyle and his friends, I really don't want to jump right into a bunch of young adults and leave the Vault completely unprotected."

She could almost hear his sigh of exasperation, even though, to his credit, he kept it to himself. "_Nardole is there. It will be fine for you to leave for a little while_."

She shuffled on the spot. She hated letting him down, but as she sat in Nardole's office, she really didn't feel comfortable leaving. "Alright, fine," she muttered. "Send me the address, I'll grab an Uber and be there soon."

"_Ah_," he replied, as if he'd not thought of how she'd get to them in the first place. "_Let me chase down Bill, I send you a text message."_

She smiled slightly. He seemed rather happy that she was going along, and how could she take that away? She wasn't the evil stepmother in their story, she was the princess.

Did she want to be a princess? She'd get a tiara…

"Alright, sweetie. Love you."

"_Love you too_."

And she sat back and waited. And waited. And waited.

_~0~0~0~_

Danni paced up and down the large open area outside the Vault. Back and forth, unable to stand still. She'd make one lap then pull out her hand sanitiser, squirting a large amount into her hands before rubbing it in as she walked away. Eventually she just left it out on a box that had been discarded. Why was everything so gross? Did the Doctor just not think to tidy up down here? What was Nardole doing in his spare time, letting it go to ruin like this?

The door opened to the basement and she heard Nardole scuttle down the stairs. When he was worried, he scuttled a lot. He was like a crab. A nervous, annoying crab.

She was _so_ glad he was there.

"Anything?" she barked at him as he appeared out of the shadows.

"Nothing, ma'am," he replied. "I tried calling Moira but she wouldn't tell me Bill's new address. She didn't trust that I worked for the university."

"Why not?" Danni snapped. "Did you use the voice again?"

"What voice?" he asked, a little insulted.

"You put on a voice when you answer the phone. You sound like a waiter. I think it's from Darillium, it's very off-putting." She turned back to look at the Vault door. Could she just dowse herself in hand sanitiser, or would that be bad for her skin?

"That's charming, that is," Nardole grumbled. "I _am_ trying to find him, you know?"

She spun back around. "Then where is he?" she exclaimed before her voice broke. "Where-Where is he?"

Nardole, immediately, felt sorry for her and walked over. He placed a hand on each of her arms and started rubbing furiously. It used to baffle Danni, but then she realised that he was trying to mimic how he'd seen humans comfort each other, just really badly and it now actually helped her feel a little better.

"Is he still not answering his phone?" he asked.

"It's not even ringing. It's like he's out of range. Do you know how hard that is for a phone that can call any time from anywhere in space to be out of range?"

Nardole did. "Alright, what about roommates? You said she was moving in with people, do we know who?"

"No. When I asked, trying to seem interested, all he said was that they were students and that all students were the same, so it didn't really matter."

That did sound like both of the Time Lords, so he didn't really question it. In fact, it was more noteworthy that Danni asked in the first place. He nodded to himself before cracking his fingers. "Alright, let me see if I can hack back into the university's system, look for some address changes. Give me five minutes."

She grabbed his arm before he could leave the basement, though. "Do-Do you think she knows?" she whispered, fearful as she nodded towards the Vault door. "That something might have happened."

"Of course not," he promised. "Unless the Doctor has contacted her himself, neither of us have said a word to her. She's trapped and out of the loop, don't worry."

She nodded, letting go of him. "Out of the loop, yeah," she muttered, trying to calm herself down. "She doesn't know a thing. She's out of the loop."

Nardole watched her turn back to stare at the Vault before dashing out, a worried look on his own face. He did hope the Doctor was alright, in fact it was probably a safe bet to put your money on the Doctor coming out on top. Still, he was concerned about where, exactly, the Doctor was. And how Danni would react knowing that she was the last defence between the universe and Missy.

_~0~0~0~_

Nardole, through pure force of will, managed to get Danni out of the basement with the promise that he would stand in her place. She had made it back to the office, but couldn't find the ability to sit down so she paced instead.

No more adventures. There could be no more adventures. It was absolutely killing her not knowing if he was coming back. She should have gone with him in the first place. He should have made Bill take a fucking cab. His big hearts were one of the many things that drew her to him, but it was because of them that she was now worrying that something absolutely terrible had happened to him. It had been hours. It had been all night. She had considered many times calling Kyle and calling her group of friends to arms, but Bristol was huge and she really had no idea where they were.

Nardole had tried to locate the TARDIS, next, but had been unsuccessful. That could have just been down to the shielding she had, though, and there was no way of getting around it without being in the TARDIS to lower them. And, well, that involved the Doctor or herself being anywhere near it and she had no idea if he was even close to the blue box.

If he was hurt, if he wasn't safe, then that was on her. She shouldn't have told him to go on his own. They should be doing whatever it was together. He shouldn't be doing it at all. She should have been there to save him.

She really couldn't stand still and she held her phone tightly in her hand. Kyle wouldn't mind, would he? He had a large group of friends and he seemed to be able to gather them with barely a moment's notice. She could get a group together, start in the more popular student housing areas and move out. Have everyone pair up so no one got lost, and everyone in this day and age had trackers and smart phones that she could hack into and keep updated on Nardole's computer so if something did go wrong she'd have a better understanding of where it happened and she could actually go on the offensive. Sure, a lot of her stuff was in the TARDIS, but she'd be alright. The Doctor saved the world with no TARDIS, no screwdriver and in only twenty minutes. She could take on Bristol in a day. It was _Bristol_, after all.

She was just about to call Kyle, hoping that he would answer and wouldn't be too angry at her waking him up so early, when the sound of the TARDIS filled the office. She stared at the corner with her eyes wide as she felt almost too scared to feel relief at seeing the box finally coming home.

By the time the Doctor emerged she was already outside the door and she didn't even question the two white carrier bags he was holding. She just chucked her arms around him and held him as tightly as she could, face in his chest, happy to hear his hearts beating again.

The Doctor didn't hug her back straight away, arms out and away so he didn't drop the bags. "Well, I was expecting a lot more shouting," he told her and she shook her head against him.

"No shouting. No arguing. Hug," she demanded and he chuckled slightly.

"Can I at least put the bags down?" he asked her. "Or are they required for this moment of affection?"

She pulled away, very reluctantly he could tell, and he placed the bags on his desk. Immediately she had pulled him back into a hug and he was very happy to let her do so. He gave her a squeeze. "I'm sorry I never got to text you," he told her. "I couldn't get a signal."

"I tried to call you," she replied.

"I don't doubt that. I'm sorry you were worried."

"Were you scared?" she asked him and he nodded.

"Terrified. But it worked out alright and, look, I'm back before midnight."

Danni frowned, because that didn't sound right, and she looked to the window and saw that it was still dark. It had felt like the entire night had passed, it felt like it should have been morning. She had been about to call Kyle and wake him up but, if it wasn't even midnight, chances were he wasn't even in bed yet.

She laughed, her voice breaking slightly. "I thought you were gone…" she trailed off and he held her tighter.

"I've told you about that," he scolded lightly. "You and me, in the TARDIS, until the end of time."

She nodded and pulled back, wiping her eyes before she started crying. "What's in the bags, then?" she asked.

"Oh, some food," he replied, taking her hand and leading her over to the chair by the desk. He sat her down. "Chinese, your favourite. I thought we could have a little indoor picnic while I told you a story."

She couldn't help but smile. "A story?"

He began pulling the cartons out, pushing the stuff in his way to the edges of the desk so he could display their feast properly. "Oh yes, a story," he replied. "About a boy, his mother, homeless students, some killer insects." He looked up at her, a grin on his face. "And a hell of a lot of wood."

_~0~0~0~_

Danni stormed into the bedroom, grumbling to herself before she dropped her laptop onto the bed. How was she supposed to study if the Doctor insisted on talking at every single moment? Bill didn't know any better, but he did. She needed quiet. How long had they been at the university now? He knew how she studied; it had never changed.

She ignored the fact that she was just angry because he'd brought in a companion with zero consideration of her or the responsibilities that _he_ decided they needed to bear. It definitely wasn't to do with the fact that Bill kept talking about their little adventure at her ill-fated student housing attempt, and it wasn't making her feel rather left out and a little jealous of their time together.

It had nothing to do with that fact that she had also been researching how to get him out of that stupid thousand-year oath he'd agreed to take, and as of yet had come up with absolutely nothing. No, it was purely because they both kept yapping away and she needed quiet to study. Plain and simple.

Of course, if she did find a way for him to get out of the oath, she knew that he would never take it. He wanted to help Missy find the goodness inside and he wouldn't listen to her when she told him there wasn't _anything_ good inside that woman. She was beyond redemption.

She sat heavily on the bed, opening her laptop with more force than necessary. And now she had to write a 4000-word essay on the drawbacks of viewing time in a linear fashion. She smiled slightly before she opened the word processor. He was a fantastic teacher, though. She could listen to him gives lectures for the next thousand years no problem at all. Even if he went over old ground, she would still enjoy it more than pretty much everything else.

She started her studies by, naturally, going on the internet. This time period did love Twitter so that was her first stop. It was usually a hell pit of arguments and death threats, but sometimes there was a good meme she could lose some time in.

Next was Facebook, where she liked a couple of posts on the group that had been created for everyone who attended the Doctor's lectures. She turned down an invite for a night out, but promised to fill a spot at a trivia night. Kyle had sent her a few gifs she needed to reply to. He had a good eye for making her chuckle slightly. Not many people could make her laugh these days, it wasn't a reaction that came naturally anymore.

Lastly were her emails. Brian still liked to drop her the occasional update of the 1950s, and all the plants that he was cultivating in Amy and Rory's back garden. She appreciated updates from all her family and, no matter which body she was in, she made sure to give him the proper level of attention and intrigue. If he loved the plants so much then they must have been important.

Then, amongst the spam and newsletters she'd inevitably signed up to when she went online shopping, a random email appeared. With the subject of 'FAO: Danielle Fielding' she should have guessed it was just some more spam, but it still caught her attention enough to open it.

'_Hello, my Pet._'

She smiled softly to herself. The Doctor hated email, but who else could it be?

The door opened and the man himself peered around the door. "Ah, I thought you would be here," he said. She looked up at him. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I've just got an essay to write," she replied a little cheekily. "My professor decided he wanted us to write a 4000-word essay for next Tuesday."

"And some old idiot kept prattling on so you couldn't focus?" he asked in reply, looking a little sheepish.

"Oh, you heard him too?" she asked, playing along. "I've asked him so many times to not do that when I'm working but he just can't help himself."

"He can't. He must love the sound of his own voice," the Doctor replied.

"He just likes to tell stories," she replied. "There's never a moment that goes by when he's not spinning some yarn, re-living his highlights."

"Speaking of, has he ever told you about his greatest highlight?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe. "About how one human with bright red hair managed to save his life and forgive him…"

She smiled a fond smile at him. "Theta, I have homework," she reminded him.

"Who forgave him again and again, even when he got on her nerves?" he finished and she shook her head, amused. "Your professor is always giving you homework. Maybe you should find another one who doesn't eat up so much of your time."

"Nah," she dismissed. "The rest of the universe is boring. He's the only one who can hold my attention long enough for me to actually want to do the homework he sets."

"That's good. Because I know, from experience, that he's only teaching because he likes to see you smile," the Doctor told her. "Speaking of." He stepped into the room, revealing a large mug he'd hidden behind his back. "I thought you could do with something warm while you studied."

"Thanks," she replied sincerely. He walked over and placed it on the bedside table. He then leant down and placed a kiss on her hair. She turned, caught his lips for a brief kiss, but let him go. She really did want to get the essay done.

"Was 4000 words too many?" he asked as he headed for the door. The fact she'd hauled herself up in the bedroom told him rather clearly that she wanted to be left alone.

"I shouldn't think so," she replied. "Linear time can be quite the complicated subject when you dive in enough. I suspect you'll have a few over the word count."

He paused at the doorway. "Perhaps I should stop assigning so many essays," he declared. "I'm just making more work for myself."

"Definitely might be something to consider," she agreed. He chuckled, knowing that he wasn't going to stop challenging his students, then headed through the door.

Danni looked back at her computer and saw the email he sent her. "Theta?"

He darted back into the room. "Yes?"

"Did you send me an email before?" she asked. His brows furrowed.

"Why would I do that? I know where you are," he replied, confused.

"I guess so," she mused with a frown. Then she smiled. "Love you."

"Love you too, my Pet," he replied before disappearing. Probably going back to Bill, she was sure their tutoring session had another half an hour or so to go.

She didn't pay it much mind, instead she turned back to the email. She believed the Doctor completely when he said it wasn't from him, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't send it from his future to her present. The TARDIS could, on occasion, divert from one timeline to another if needed.

'_Who is this?'_

It seemed the simplest of questions and she sent it without much thought of manners. A moment later it there was a reply.

'_Don't be stupid.'_

She frowned, annoyed for a moment. They obviously thought that she should know who they were, which she didn't. Maybe she could work it out. The Doctor was the only one who called her his Pet but, while the next message could have easily been from him, she knew it wasn't. He might have prompted her to work it out for herself, but he wouldn't have straight up called her 'stupid'. Well, maybe if he was in a rather precarious jam that he needed her help with straight away.

She checked the email address, something she should have thought of sooner. Her eyes widened slightly. The username and domain name were exactly the same.

'_knockknock.'_

Four knocks.

Well, she had to admit, it was pretty on the nose and she felt rather stupid for not noticing it sooner. It didn't last very long, though, because the anger at the thought quickly took over. She slammed the lid on her laptop shut and jumped off her bed. She stormed out of the TARDIS, straight past the Doctor and Bill who just watched her leave but didn't follow. The look on her face must have told them that she was best left alone and she was glad at it, because she didn't want Bill to see her shouting.

Nardole was outside the Vault door, doing whatever checks he tended to do when he was there. He glanced over his shoulder. "Danielle, I was just making sure…"

"Move," she demanded shortly. He spun, looking slightly alarmed.

"What-What are you…" he stuttered but she pushed him out of the way, tapping away on the keypad that unlocked the doors. "You can't go in there! She's not ready to see anyone."

"Don't care," Danni retorted. "She's broken the rules." She continued to type – the Doctor had really overdone the passcode – and didn't look up as she called inside. "Get inside the glass box!" she commanded. "If you're not in there I'm not coming in!"

"Danielle, I must insist you stop this at once," Nardole exclaimed. "The Doctor gave me strict instructions to keep everyone out of there, including yourself. It's for your safety."

"Who did River tell you to listen to?" she countered.

"Well, that's not really fair…"

"That's not an answer."

He sighed. "You, Danielle," he admitted reluctantly.

"So, my orders supersede the Doctor's. Stop contradicting me."

"But you have to see why I must," Nardole pressed. "She's _recovering_, not recovered. If she gets ideas then it could set everything back decades!"

"She's never going to recover," Danni snapped as she stepped back and the Vault doors started to open. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or not to see Missy sat in the middle of the room in the containment field in the middle of the room. On one hand she was very happy to see as many barriers as possible between her and Missy, but it also meant that she would be able to talk to the other Time Lady and that was never a good prospect.

Keeping her anger tight, she strode into the room. "Where did you get the internet?" she demanded. "You're not supposed to contact the outside world at all."

Missy held her hand up to her chest. "I don't have access to the internet," she promised. "Or a phone, or even a Morse code machine."

"You are lying," Danni snapped back, getting as close to the glass as she dared. "Where is it?"

"I promise I don't have any such thing," Missy replied. "You know I'm not lying."

Danni barked out an angry laugh. "You're not lying?" she exclaimed. "All you do is lie!" She opened the laptop, showing her the browser where her email inbox sat. "What is this, then?" she demanded. "Knock-Knock at Knock-Knock dot com. Did you really think I wouldn't get that?"

Missy leant a little closer to see and, despite the glass walls separating them, Danni stepped back and away from her. "I can see the confusion," Missy replied calmly. "But honestly, Danielle, that isn't me. You can check the room if you like. I'm sure you've got that silly little sonic device with you."

Danni stared at her for a moment longer, alert in case she tried something she needed to react to quickly. She did have a point, unfortunately, so after a moment to make sure she wasn't too much of a threat, Danni tucked her laptop underneath her arm and pulled out her screwdriver. She did a quick scan of the area and found Missy was right. She lowered her arm, still holding the sonic screwdriver tightly. "There's nothing here," she admitted reluctantly.

"I'm glad you can see that now," Missy replied, standing up. Danni again moved a little backwards from the glass. "I really am trying to change, Danielle. Surely you can see that?"

Danni shook her head. "You can't change," she retorted. "You're never going to change. Your regeneration is poisoned."

She actually looked hurt, which just made Danni feel a little sick. "I am trying," she insisted again. "I know I hurt you, I know I did wrong. Please, let me show that to you."

She stepped towards Danni and Danni shot backwards, dropping her screwdriver in her panic. "Stay back," she cried. "Stay away from me."

"Please, Danielle," Missy begged. "I just want to make it up to you."

Danni shook her head. "No, no, you're not going to change and you're not coming anywhere near me," she exclaimed. She turned and quickly strode out of the Vault. "Lock it up, Nardole."

Nardole sighed heavily, doing as she said. "I said it wasn't a good idea," he muttered.

"I know you did," Danni retorted as Missy sat back down, watching the doors to the vault close in front of her. "Don't tell the Doctor I was here."

"But Danielle…"

"_Don't tell him!"_

Nardole sighed again as she disappeared out of the basement. "I shouldn't have come here," he muttered. "No gratitude at all."

_~0~0~0~_

Danni stopped after bursting back out into the outside world, leaning against the wall and panting heavily. Her hands were shaking, her hearts were racing. They had been here _decades_ and she still couldn't help but feel absolutely terrified just at the sight of Missy. She hated going down there, but she had needed to find out if Missy was trying to escape. There had been no ability to contact anyone outside the Vault, though. Missy was clean.

The thought should have calmed her, but it didn't. She reopened the laptop yet again and replied to the email quickly.

'_Who is this?'_

She watched, trying to catch her breath and calm her nerves, for what felt like eternity. She'd never been so anxious to get an email before. Then the reply appeared. There was a picture attached and embedded but, as the university infrastructure was absolutely awful, the text appeared first.

'_Did you miss me?'_

'_What do you think of the beard?'_

Her eyes widened, her breath caught and her knees went weak. The wall was the only thing holding her up as the image quickly revealed itself. Brown hair, styled beard, a killer grin and a ridiculous smug look.

"_Koschei?"_

_~0~0~0~_

_I'm so happy to see so many of you still here! Fills this old author's heart right up :D_

_I'm trying to get back into weekly updates. I can't promise it will be every week, but I really am trying!_

_Reviews!_

_**serenitysaiyan** \- Honestly, loved seeing all your reviews come in all at once. Glad you're enjoying it! Not quite Oh, but you're not wrong, he must be around there somewhere!_

_**Guest** \- Thank you for the review :D_

_**SuspianFeels** \- Thanks you, sweetie! Hope you liked this one too!_

_**Guest** \- Not quite any Bill, yet. I will be getting them both out and about soon enough, though._

_**Psst** \- Thanks :D_

_**ViceroyIcarus** \- I'm not sure if you'll see this in order, but thank you so much! I did decide that, depending on the episode, some of the 'getting stuff done' parts just wouldn't change and at that point I'm just rehashing the canon, whereas this has always been focused on Danni and so I decided to keep on her changes. That's why this story has actually already skipped a couple of episodes. That's not going to always be the case, as her story progresses so will the amount of time she will have in the canon stories, but for now she's kind of separated from them._

_**bored411** \- Oh, I can't wait for Thirteen, it's going to be so much fun to write them together! Thank you for reading, sweetie :D_


	11. A Quick Outting

It wasn't until she felt the coldness starting to seep through her jeans that Danni realised that she'd slid all the way down to the ground. The Master stared back at her, smirk and all, never moving. It was like, even though the picture, he could see something deep inside of her that even she struggled to reach. He had such piercing eyes.

How the hell had he managed to contact her? He should still have been trapped on Gallifrey, right? He didn't leave until he'd regenerated to Missy. Didn't he? She was sure of it…

Why was she sure of that, though? Had she looked it up, had she seen proof, or had Missy offered her that as a piece of information? Was it a lie? Was he out in the universe? Had he escaped Rassilon long before Missy came into existence?

Was he okay?

A new email quickly came in, the notification popping up in the corner of the screen. It took her a moment to be able to move her hand enough to refresh the page, bringing up the new text.

'_I told you, my name is the Master._'

Apparently, she had replied to him without noticing. Apparently, it had also been a few minutes since she'd replied as well. In fact, she wasn't sure how long it had been since she'd stormed out of the Vault. She was shivering, though. Was she cold? It wasn't winter, why was she shivering?

Just when she thought she was safe with Missy in the Vault something came along and reminded her that she was still out there. That just because she was in the Vault in this particular relative time didn't mean that there was no Missy walking around. She could make it until the end of the thousand years, get let out, and still jump back to right now and grab her again. She was still walking around as a danger. And now, as well, so was the Master. And just like Missy he had sought her out. She was never going be free from either of them. She was trapped being hounded. _Hunted._

'_Come on, Danielle, you can't ignore me forever_.'

Danni didn't scream, she just took hold of the laptop with both hands and chucked it as far away from her as she possibly could. It smashed as it hit the ground, scattering keys and glass as it skidded away but there was no relief. She just stared at it with wide eyes. What was she going to do? She wasn't safe. She was never going to be safe.

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor looked up as Danni opened the door almost energetically. It swung open, hitting the fireplace behind it and bouncing off it. "Let's go somewhere," she declared out of nowhere.

"I'm sorry?" he asked as she shut the door just as quickly. She turned around, leaning against it, a grin on her face.

"Let's go somewhere," she repeated. "Just you and me. Let's go on an adventure."

"What happened to you not wanting to go on another trip?" he asked, a little concerned.

"Well, I was talking to Nardole and suddenly realised I had changed my mind," she offered and he nodded solemnly.

"That is enough to make anyone want to get as far away from here as possible," he agreed. "Bill will be here soon, though."

"Tell her not to come," Danni said as she all but chucked her laptop onto the chair in front of his desk. "Tell her your tutoring… thing is cancelled. We can go, just the two of us, can't we?"

How could he turn her down when she was so eager? He had been worried that their trip to the Frost Fair had put her back on edge when it came to leaving the university. He was glad to see that, even though she had tried to deny it, the itch to travel was still within her. He shot her a grin. "Give me a moment, my Pet."

She also grinned back and sped into the TARDIS. He quickly let Bill know that class was cancelled and he headed in after her. She was stood at the TARDIS, waiting for him like a child who really wanted to go to the park. "Where to?" he asked. "I know this wonderful little planet, beautiful skies? Or maybe somewhere far into the future?"

She shook her head and placed her hands on the controls. "Let's go random," she replied. "Let's see what she can do." And she flipped the switch.

_~0~0~0~_

It was very obvious from the moment that the Doctor and Danni stepped out of the TARDIS that they'd landed right in the middle of a situation that it normally took them at least half an hour to fall into the middle of. The hallway was dark, really dark. There were wires hanging from the ceiling that seemed to spark as they swung in the air. The emergency lighting that illuminated barely anything at all flickered to indicate that the power supply was intermittent at best. There was the sound of screams in the distance, almost as if the air was carrying the noise to them.

Danni grinned from ear to ear; this was _perfect_.

"Well, this sure is random," the Doctor commented, ducking as one of the wires sparked off another and came within a dangerous distance of his head. "Must be a weekend."

Danni looked up and down the hallway, looking for any signs of anything useful, but it was too dark to see without further investigation. She looked up at the ceiling. "The emergency lights are pointing that way," she said, pointing right as she trailed them with her finger. "That'll be the exit."

"And yet we don't seem to be terribly overrun by people trying to get to safety," the Doctor commented. She nodded before pointing up to the left.

"I think we should go that way."

The Doctor agreed completely so the pair headed up into the danger. "Did you check where we were before we left the TARDIS?" he asked her.

"Did you?" she shot back. He did not. "I'm thinking we've not gone too far. This architecture is very plain." She wasn't one for checking if there was a door in the walls anymore, but when she did drag her fingers across the wall, she did make sure she didn't find any door handles. "The colours are very plain. It's all a bit dull, so I'm thinking Earth or, at least, human-adjacent."

"Time period?" he asked and she shrugged.

"Who knows? They all begin to look a bit samey after a while."

He couldn't disagree with her there. He found a lot of the time species tended to cycle through their architectural style choices, which could on occasion make it harder for him to pin down an exact time frame. "Perhaps we can find some locals? This might not be any danger at all, they could just be right in the middle of redecorating."

She shot him a look. "And the screaming?"

"Who likes to redecorate?"

She did. In fact, one of her favourite memories from Darillium was helping Jack get set up. She'd helped paint his entire house and it had been a delightful experience. Tiring, and not as fun as building his furniture, but she'd really enjoyed it and he knew that.

Then there was the sound of gunfire very close by and she smirked at him. "I knew it, we're in trouble," she crowed happily. "Let's go save the day!"

Her enthusiasm for the danger she was practically dragging them into was a little concerning. Whilst turning his back on screaming people take his wife back to the TARDIS to find out what was wrong wasn't exactly his normal practice, the Doctor did consider doing so for just a moment. It was becoming apparent very quickly that this was more than just running off because Nardole had said something to annoy her. She was running away from something, hard and fast. He recognised that very well.

"Are we in space, or on the ground?" she asked him. He did a little bounce as he walked, feeling the gravity.

"Ground," he confirmed and she nodded as if that was what she had been thinking as well.

"So, maybe Earth, maybe not," she mused to herself. "I do like a good mystery."

They turned a corner and, in the dark, spotted their first bodies of the trip on the ground. Danni grimaced at the sight. "Oh, that is something you don't want to see," she muttered as they walked over. There were three adults and they crouched down to look at them. One of them looked distinctly older than the other two.

"The younger two have been shot," she told the Doctor. "Not sure what got the third, though. Fright, maybe?"

The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and gave them a scan. "Well, that's surprising," he declared. "They're the same age."

"Really?" Danni asked and he nodded. "What's turned him into a grandpa, then?"

"Not sure, but a quick stab in the dark would be his two friends," he reasoned. "Why else were they gunned down?"

"Are they human?"

The Doctor gave them another quick scan, just to refresh his results. "I'd say so," he confirmed. "Although that doesn't account for what they did to him."

Danni pulled at the old guy's clothing. "Is it me, or does this scream 'military' to you?" The Doctor nodded in agreement. "So, they're attacking the soldiers. Being that they were shot and all left here, I'm going to assume that the soldiers were on the defence."

"So, what's so bad that the military have been sent in?" the Doctor finished. That was the question. The bodies, as tragic as they were, just offered more questions than they had answered. What _was_ attacking the planet to make the military go in? Why had the two humans been gunned down as well? What had destroyed all of the infrastructure around them?

"Oh, this keeps getting better and better," Danni commented happily before she met his gaze. "It's just like old times, isn't it? You and me, in the middle of the unknown, working it out and fighting bad guys?" She didn't wait for him to answer, instead she turned back to the old man and began searching his clothing. "I've missed this so much."

He frowned as he watched her. "What are you doing?"

"Looking for identification," she explained. "I found out long ago that, when you don't have any psychic paper, military identification is the next best thing to get you into any place you want."

He knew she was talking about when she was on the run after she'd escaped from Missy. "Did you do that often?" he asked.

"I had a lot of places I needed to get into without a way to get in myself," she reasoned. "They also make great places to hide, or steal things when you need money." She pulled out a badge, not unlike a police officer's from 21st century Britain. "And they also give you more information than you expect." She handed it over. "He's not military, he's coast guard."

The Doctor took it off her to take a closer look. "Coast guard? In _that_ uniform?" he questioned. Danni also pulled out a gun.

"And armed," she added as the Doctor handed her the badge back. "They're sending out volunteers to fight. That's a pretty bleak situation."

The Doctor stood back up again and helped her off the floor. "So, let me guess, you want to go investigate?" he asked and she nodded eagerly.

"Don't you?" she countered. She took hold of his other hand. "Come on, Theta. Mystery, intrigue, people in danger; you _know_ you love this as much as I do."

She was using her tempting voice, with a little smirk and a look in her eye that he could rarely resist. He nodded and pulled her a little closer. "That I do, my Pet," he purred. She closed the gap between them, pulling him in for a kiss that meant that they didn't hear the footsteps approaching until it was too late for them to do anything about it.

"_You!"_ someone screamed and they broke away to see a group of five people pointing their guns at them. "Show us your hands!"

Danni frowned. "What?" she asked bluntly.

"Hands! Show us your hands, right now!" the one at the front shouted, pointing their gun in warning at the Time Lords. The pair shared a look, completely baffled, then held up their hands like they should have been at being held at gunpoint. "And your forearms."

"Now I feel like you're just undressing us," Danni commented but they both did as they were asked. They rolled their sleeves up and showed off their arms, and with a motion of their leader's hand, the guns were lowered. They lifted up their helmet to reveal a rather young-looking man.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked them. "Civilians are supposed to remain inside the town hall until daylight."

"Yeah, we didn't get that memo," Danni replied. She pointed down at the corpses next to them. "What happened to grandad down there?"

The man's eyes narrowed slightly in anger. "That's Dale," he snapped. "He was one of our men."

"Ah, sorry about her," the Doctor quickly interjected. "She's become quite rude as of late." Danni glared at him but he ignored her. "The more important question is why did you want us to show you our arms?"

The guy looked a little distrustful at the question. "What do you mean? Where have you been?"

"You know, snogging, sleeping, generally being rather idiotic," he dismissed. "Why don't you just assume we know nothing and go from there."

The man didn't look like he particularly trusted what he was saying, as if he couldn't quite work out how no one would know what was going on. It was a state of mind that Danni and the Doctor came across on a regular basis, and one that usually only took a moment to overcome.

One of the other soldiers leant forward towards their leader. "We should move. We've already stood still for too long."

The man nodded, agreeing. "Right," he said. "We'll have to head back to base. You two will just have to sit the night out there."

"Good plan," Danni replied. "I'm Danni, by the way, he's the Doctor."

She could see the fact that he was just called 'the Doctor' was also causing pause for thought, and she loved the look on people's faces when they were deciding whether or not to question what they had just heard. It was always a fifty-fifty chance on whether they would.

"Grant," he eventually offered. "This way."

"Thank you, Grant," Danni replied before they all started heading the way the soldiers had come from. She looked up at the Doctor, smugly. "See, not so rude, am I?"

He dipped his head down slightly so he could keep his voice low. "If you're bragging about being polite, you're not being polite, my Pet," he pointed out.

She scowled.

_~0~0~0~_

"It happened so fast that no one really saw it coming," Grant explained. "Not even the government. Or, if they did, they were paid very well to keep quiet. One minute we were going about a business, going to work like every other day, the next the entire town was closed off."

"What, with a glass dome?" Danni asked.

"Forcefield," he corrected. "It's highly contagious, so they had to quarantine the entire area. No one comes in, no one comes out, and we're just left to fend for ourselves as we're slowly converted."

The TARDIS had landed them in an office building, of all places. Not that it was obvious from the state of disrepair the hallways had been in, but Grant and his men had led them outside and it had been the home of an insurance company. They'd not gone far down the street to another set of offices. It turned out that they were all making do with what they had around them.

The room itself was pretty decked out. They'd brought in every monitor they could find, all placed haphazardly around the windowless room, all with camera feeds. They'd managed to keep power going into the building enough to keep an eye on wherever they could, keeping watch over their immediate area. The room only had the door that they'd come through, and was in the middle of the building. Very defensible, very clever.

"And this was all down to, what did you call them?" the Doctor replied.

"Glucosphere," another one of the men, Sam, said. "They were the leading body of additives. You know, those things they put in candy to make it taste like actual fruit without having to have any fruit in them at all?"

"They've been a part of this town for decades. One of the biggest employers. The pay with a bit rubbish, but they always had jobs. My parents even worked there," Grant continued. "No one is really sure what happened."

"So, the arm thing…" Danni started leadingly.

"It's how it starts. It starts at the fingers, spreads up, and soon you're not human anymore."

"They suck all your energy. They can age you fifty years in seconds. We think that's when your heart gives out," Sam explained.

"We don't exactly have the resources to investigate, though," Grant said, a little cynically. "All we know is that when they die, they revert back."

They were sat around a table that had once been used for conferences. The Doctor sat back in his chair. "And how does your little ragtag band of merry heroes fit into this?"

"Well, we're only a small town. We don't exactly have a military presence. We all got together at town hall to try and figure out what to do next and we've all played enough video games to know that we can fight or we can lie down and die. So, we gathered whatever weaponry we had, volunteered for posts at various points throughout the time, and now we're trying to cull the infection."

"That explains your mate Dale," Danni commented. "He was a coast guard."

"Ocean's about 15 minutes up the road," another one of the men explained. "We've got a few of them dotted about. We've been cut off from that as well, though, otherwise we'd have all fled that way."

"So now it's just us against them," Grant finished. "No one is coming to help. We're the last defence."

That explained why they all seemed a little young to be fighting. And, also, why they were very quickly comfortable to just spill their whole backstory without much of a fight. In their experience, actual military was often stubborn and incredibly unhelpful.

"But you got in, though, didn't you?" Sam asked. "How did you break through the quarantine?"

"Ah, well, we didn't exactly mean to," Danni dismissed. "What about the government, though? You said that they didn't see this coming, but are they not sending their own help?"

Grant shot a look at Sam. "Show them," he instructed. Sam walked over to one of the computers they had set up and clicked a few things. The monitor changed from a black and white camera feed to a woman in a nice suit, looking at the camera very solemnly.

"_To the people of Lowgrary, on behalf of everyone, we hope that you are not in pain at this most unfortunate time. And we are sorry. We are so sorry."_

It was only a short clip, barely five seconds long but it looped around against. Sam quickly turned it off. "That was our president," Grant explained. "It's being broadcast everywhere from the outside. Does that sound like a government who wants to help?"

"No, it doesn't," she agreed, looking at her husband. He had his thoughtful face on, the one he got when he was trying to process all of the information that was being thrown at him, looking for patterns or inconsistencies that might help them work out what was happening.

"You said that we'll have to wait it out in here until daylight. Why?" he asked.

"It's just easier to spot them in the light. The mutation turns their skin a dull grey, it helps them blend into the darkness better. In the daylight you can avoid them better."

The Doctor nodded. "Great, let's wait until sunrise, then," he declared, jumping off his seat. "Don't let us interrupt your duties. Danielle and I will sit in the corner until then. Danielle," he shot her a pointed look and she rolled her eyes, standing up and following him over.

"The corner, really?" she asked lowly.

"Let's take a leaf out of the infected's book, and hide in the shadows until something useful comes along."

_~0~0~0~_

"So, what we have is a gaggle of gamers playing army men, except they're not playing?" Danni surmised. She shifted slightly, leaning her head against the Doctor's chest.

"What we have is some evil cooperation turning people into killer zombies," the Doctor pointed out. The room was dark, so they were sat in the far corner, up against the wall. Danni laid against the Doctor.

"But why? Who makes something that can wipe out part of the population? Especially if they then just cut everyone off, so it doesn't spread? And at a food additive company? Were the E-numbers just not quite enough or something?" she continued. "And why would they revert back when they died? And we heard screaming, but I don't think that was Dale, I think he might have been there for a while, so who was screaming?"

"Perhaps there were people outside who befell the same fate?"

"But everyone's supposed to be at town hall until sun up. Are there people just not following instruction? I mean, people rarely do until people start dying and the whole town is domed off from everyone else. Are the infected nocturnal? Why do they drain people? And what's with the hands?"

The questions were coming thick and fast, and he was very happy for her to brain dump on him. Their dynamic had always been that should would see something, or say something, that would stop his own stream of questions and thoughts and point him in the right direction. While he was always looking for reasons and answers, he also trusted her to find the one thing he was missing.

"Why bother patrolling at all?" the Doctor asked. "If town hall is safe, why leave?"

"Because flight is only an option when there's not a giant forcefield around your town. So, you fall to fight," Danni reasoned. "I mean, we both know being caged is only frightening some of the time. Other times it just plain infuriating and if I could shoot the things that were keeping me trapped, I would."

The sound of gunfire had them all looking at the door, surprised, as what was happening outside helped to illustrate her point. "Are there other bases like this in this building?" Danni called over.

"No, we're the only one on this block," Grant replied. Sam took a look at the many monitors looking at the building and the street below.

"Shit," he breathed. "There's tons of them."

"There must be, if your friends have circled all the way around here," the Doctor replied, jumping off the ground before helping his wife up. "Perhaps now would be a good time to see them in action. Shall we?"

"You- You want to go after them?" Grant asked, slowly, and rather confused.

"You _don't_ want to help save your friends?" Danni countered.

_~0~0~0~_

By the time they made it outside, the infected horde had left and with two or three of their men on the ground where they'd been shot by the fleeing humans. Of course, there were also a few scattered corpses of people who had been aged well beyond their years close by. It was a horrid, distressing, and terribly sobering sight, but it did give the two Time Lords something to examine to try and get to the bottom of what was happening. They both split up, the Doctor with his screwdriver in hand and Danni with a sad look in her eyes as she crouched over one of the aged people.

Grant joined her by the side of the fallen man and a glance up showed that the two 'civilians' had been flanked, but neither were being disturbed. She was sure it was all just too disturbing for all of them to fight the strangest the two had brought.

She took a look at Grant, who was looking at his fallen friend like he had seen one too many dead bodies and Danni's hearts ached for him. He was so young.

She stood up, not seeing anything new that could help them, brushing herself down as she headed back over to see what the Doctor had found out. "How did you become the leader, then?" Danni asked. "I mean, you're what, 18, 20? How did you get to be in charge of your own platoon?"

"22," Grant corrected. "And, I guess, I'm the oldest. Power trickles down and the moment Dale died, I suddenly was in charge."

"Makes sense," Danni replied before frowning. She stopped. "No, wait, no it doesn't," she said. "You're the oldest?"

Grant didn't seem to quite know what to do with her question. "Yeah," he said. "Sam's 21, and Jake and Darren are 19."

"And power trickles down?" she asked and he nodded. "And there's more of you out there? More groups of merry men fighting down these weird mutations?"

"Yes…"

The Doctor looked over at his wife. He had expected her to appear at his side, but she instead seemed to be standing in the middle of the street, staring at Grant like he had just dropped some information that had changed everything she was thinking about. He walked over. "What it is?" he asked.

She pointed at Grant. "He's the oldest."

His brows furrowed. "Okay…" he started. "Does that really matter? Is it his birthday or something?" He looked at Grant. "Rather rubbish way to spend your birthday, isn't it?"

She shook her head. "No, it's not his birthday," she corrected. "He's in charge because he's the oldest. There are a lot of groups of people with guns, all with the oldest in charge. Unless they have had rather bad luck compared to everyone else, then they're all going to be a similar age as him."

"So they're all, what, 40-45?" the Doctor guessed and she shot him a look.

"He's 22," she corrected. He still had so much trouble seeing people's faces and ages, they all blurred together for him and most of the time it was adorable and she could be patient and explain it all to him. But now she was on a train of thought she had hoped he would join her on and as it zoomed past him, it just annoyed her. "If he's 22, then so is everyone else. All these young people leading armies like they're generals." She looked back at Grant. "Where are all the grownups?"

The Doctor finally joined her in what she was thinking. "Of course," he breathed. "You talked about your parents as if they were dead. I thought it was just an unfortunate consequence of this infection, but it's not, is it? They all died, didn't they? With the outbreak?"

"Not all of them," he explained. "Glucosphere employed a lot of the town, but not everyone. It spread through everyone who worked there like wildfire, but everyone else was attacked and either killed or became one of them. One by one we were slowly overrun and as people died, we had to find a new system of leadership. Eventually we settled on age because there was no other option. It's not like we can really vote on it."

The Doctor and Danni shared a look. "How long, exactly, has this been going on?" Danni asked.

"About four years, now," Sam spoke up. "I was still in school when the town closed down."

"And you've been fighting all this time, even though your authority figures are dead and the government has turned its back on you?" the Doctor asked.

"Collectively we joined together and said 'fuck 'em'."

Danni grinned. "There it is," she declared before looking to her husband. "This is the human spirit I love. Gathering together under the umbrella of telling the people in power to suck it."

He agreed, it was truly amazing and one of his favourite characteristics of humanity. He adored their spirit. It always amazed him and it always made him love them a little bit more.

Gunfire shot out from down the hallway, and there was a scream that had them all looking behind them. "Was that Jake?" Sam asked.

"Where's Sam?" Grant asked before stepping forward, gun ready. "Sam? Jake?" he called down the hallway. Footsteps rumbled towards them and it became pretty apparent they were about to be pounced upon.

A group of infected appeared form the dark. While it was obvious that they had been human at some point, their features were mangled into something rather horrific. Eyes hung out of skulls, jaws visible through rotten flesh. It was very easy to see how the myth of zombies came into existence if events similar to this had happened over history. It was like they had sprung up from the ground.

Danni quickly looked at their hands as that, apparently, was the first signs of the infection. Instead of hands they had claws, almost like they were crabs, with their fingers fused together to form the shape. They were snarling and, it would seem, rather mad.

"Run," the Doctor declared as he grabbed her hand. She held onto it tightly. "Run, now."

_~0~0~0~_

_Sorry for the missed chapter last week! I scrapped the original version of this, so I hope that this is alright :)_

_Reviews!_

_**Apella** \- Thanks, sweetie!_

_**Guest** \- Yah, I do like a good cliffhanger. Thanks! :)_

_**Guest** \- Hope this one was alright!_

_**Psst** \- Thank you, I think :P Hope this is a good follow on._

_**DarkPhantom101** \- Oh, I can't wait until we get to Oh! I don't have plans for her to regenerate anytime soon, and definitely not before Thirteen comes. If you would like some Thirteen/Danni, check the outtakes. There's some Danni/Thirteen fluff in there :)_

_**SuspianFeels** \- Thank you, sweetie! Hopefully I'll be semi-reliable, but I can't promise that._

_**bored411** \- Well, you would think so, wouldn't you? :P_


	12. Flashback Lessons

_The street was dark, and deserted. The lamps lit everything in a strange glow, making the shadows cast from the walls and dumpster stretch eerily. There was not much to be heard, except the footsteps of the three people who were heading towards the warehouse. Everything seemed to echo off every wall, so they kept their voices low._

"_I never thought that we'd find trouble here, of all places," Danni commented as they slowly approached the metal side door. The darkness made it easy for them get close without being seen, and the warehouse seemed pretty deserted. "Then again, no matter where we go, trouble always seems to appear. Why should retirement be any different?"_

"_Are you sure you don't want to head back?" Jack asked. "I mean, I know how your husband gets when you're not home on time."_

"_He had every chance to join us at the restaurant. And the bar afterwards," she pointed out. "If he wants to miss all the fun, that's his own fault. He will just have to grin and bear it when we brag about it later."_

"_And you're intending on bragging about it?" _

_She shot him a look. "Aren't you?" she countered. "Surely it's one of the perks with stopping alien threats? Being able to brag about it to your friends?"_

"_You mean, above the 'saving the world' part?"_

_She shrugged. "I mean, if that's what you're into…"_

_River rolled her eyes. "Can we focus on the task at hand?" she asked._

"_Yes, mother," Danni replied and River shot her an exasperated look. She just shared a cheeky smile with Jack before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her sonic screwdriver._

_Jack adjusted his grip on his gun. "Everyone ready?" he asked. The two women nodded. "Right, stay quiet, stay low and stay behind me. Whatever is in there won't be friendly."_

"_This isn't our first time doing this, Flash," River retorted. "Danni-Girl, if you would."_

_Danni grinned to herself. "A nice, fun, family adventure," she declared. "What could possibly go wrong?"_

_~0~0~0~_

They were all panting as the Doctor pulled Danni's hand, indicating that instead of continuing to run down the street, they should instead turn off into another building. Happy to not be running for her life, Danni followed as did Grant and his remaining soldier. The Doctor chucked the door open and found that they had entered an old store. Rusted metal shelving lined the small area, whatever the store had been selling long since gone. But the Doctor had quickly scanned the room to see if he could find anything of use in the dark, and spotted a rather sophisticated till at the end of the aisle.

"Perfect," he declared before letting go of Danni's hand. "Lock the door. Hopefully they will be too stupid to notice the giant window."

"With what?" Danni asked as he moved quickly to the register desk. "I don't have the key."

"You really haven't done this in a while, have you?" he replied. "Your screwdriver, remember? Point and think?"

She rolled her eyes, mocking him slightly as she reached into her pocket, only to find it strangely empty. She'd had her screwdriver on her that morning. Where could it have…

_Missy stepped towards her and Danni shot backwards, dropping her screwdriver in her panic. "Stay back," she cried. "Stay away from me."_

Ah, of course. That was where her sonic screwdriver was. In the Vault, with a madwoman who was hellbent on escaping and kidnapping her, to then take over the universe together. A woman who wanted to torture Danni into submission and had very little else to do but wait until she found her chance to escape. A woman who only had Nardole to stop her. A woman who would rip through Nardole like he was a piece of paper.

She ripped her hand out of her pocket. She shouldn't have gone into the Vault on her own. She should have listened to her own instincts. Why was she so stupid?!

"I-I don't have it!" she called over as her hearts raced painfully in her chest, the panic rising. The Doctor paused, his own screwdriver in his hand as he went to work on taking apart the register until he found something useful.

"Why not? Where is it?"

She should tell him. She should totally tell him. He'd tell her off, but he'd understand. He would look after her. He was so good whilst she was scared.

"In-In the TARDIS, I don't know," she snapped back. "I don't carry it around with me anymore, why would I?" She turned back around. "I don't have it, you do. Pass me yours."

He signed but threw it in her direction. She caught it and turned to the door. "What was the point in me getting you one if you're never going to use it?"

"Don't start on that again," she warned, because it wasn't the first time that they'd had this discussion and she was happy to let the old argument distract her from the very real possibility that she had unleashed Missy onto an unsuspecting Bristol. "We live in a university. Unless it's going to do my homework for me, I very rarely have use for it. I only want to carry stuff around that is useful to me."

"It's because it ruins the lining of your clothes," the Doctor corrected.

"Do you blame me?" she retorted. "I look amazing, I don't need a sonic screwdriver shaped lump on my side if I have no need for it."

Grant watched the two, a little bewildered at that fact that they seemed to be arguing like it was just an average, normal day and they weren't being chased by monsters that were intent on either draining their energy or turning them into one of them. He expected anyone who was new to what had become of their home town to be more, well, scared. "You do this often, don't you?" he asked Danni, who nodded.

"He thinks he knows better than me, but it's rare that the clothes I like have pockets and he's so used to having…"

"No, the 'running away from monsters' thing," he cut in before she could start ranting. "You seem like you're used to it."

She looked down at the screwdriver in her hand. The Doctor's looked so much different to hers, but it didn't feel foreign in her grasp. "We used to, quite a bit. Life's been a bit still since those times," she replied before shooting him a smirk. "Still, I'm still pretty fucking awesome at it."

She was about to head over to the Doctor, when the noise of their chasers made it pretty obvious that they were about to be caught. Danni pushed herself up against the wall between the door and the window whilst Grant dropped to the floor. The Doctor also hid behind the counter and they all waited, silently, until the sound disappeared and the infected moved onto their next target.

Danni peeked out around the window frame and could barely see them as they moved. "What do they do?" she asked. "When they're not trying to eat everyone?"

"You know, I've never thought to ask," Grant drawled. She shot him a look.

"Maybe if we can work that out, we can work out _why_ they are like they are," she commented.

"I don't think they do much of anything but move and suck the energy out of anything they come across," he retorted. "Not sure what could be useful about that."

"I don't know," the Doctor drawled and Danni almost jumped a mile as he appeared next to her. "Perhaps that's what they're lacking; the art of decent conversation."

"Don't sneak up on me like that," she hissed at him. "I might have punched you, then where would we be?"

"You have my screwdriver, my Pet," he reminded her. "I need it to get into the computer system."

"What is it you're looking for, exactly?" she asked after handing it over. "It's just a shop register, I doubt it has any information."

"It might have sales information, distributors, internet access," he listed off, walking over to the register and straightening it up. He hated working on messy equipment. "It might have the number for corporate, then I can give them a call and complain about the appalling service. Either way, it has more information than we do right now."

"We should be heading to the town hall," Grant told him. "We're not safe out here, we're safe in there."

"That's another thing. Why the town hall? What makes the town hall such a safe haven?"

"Maybe they respect the democratic process?" Danni drawled. "Or, maybe, they're not stupid enough to attack a large crowd."

The Doctor stopped what he was doing and pointed his screwdriver at her. "Ah, but it's not a large crowd, is it?" he reminded. "After all, you noticed it yourself. These lot are children. There are no adults. I bet there's a lot more zombies than there are alive people. Even the most basic of predators knows when they're not outnumbered."

She shrugged. "Then what else could it be?" she asked.

"Exactly," he replied. "There is something we don't know. Something that, I suspect, no one is supposed to know about."

"Something that, perhaps, the government might be apologising over?" Danni suggested pointedly and he nodded.

"Wait, you think they did this to us?" Grant asked.

"If it was an accident by a private company, they would have cut you off and left you all to die. But they're not, they're apologising. What use is that to all of you? After all, you're all supposed to be dead by now," the Doctor explained.

"Which means they're not apologising to you. They're apologising to the people on the outside, who are probably looking at your town as a failure on the governments part," Danni finished for him.

"So, the message is just a PR stunt?" Darren, the remaining solider, asked and they nodded. "But why?"

"Why indeed," the Doctor muttered. "That's what I need to find out."

_~0~0~0~_

_Danni dropped to the ground, rolling behind some boxes that were stacked a little too haphazardly for her liking. The loud roar rumbled through the large room, causing everything to shake. Jack was hiding behind the boxes as well, gun at the ready as he pulled her closer._

"_Where's River?" she asked._

"_Not sure," he admitted, which she wasn't particularly happy about. "Did you get a good look at it?"_

_She shook her head, panting slightly from the running. She was starting to get out of shape, it was embarrassing. "Teeth. I saw teeth," she offered. "Lots of them, close up. It had really bad breath."_

"_That was your takeaway?" he asked._

"_There's nothing wrong with good dental hygiene. Especially with teeth that big. They were huge, Jack."_

"_As you've said," he interrupted before she could get into a rant about the giantness of the teeth she'd seen. "We need to find your mother, then contain… whatever it is." He dipped his head out from behind the boxes, looking around the darkness. He could see the large, bounding shape of the creature that was obviously looking for the three people who had spooked it. "We need to neutralise it."_

_Danni's head appeared underneath his. "I know we're kinda a military family, but can you not use words like 'neutralise'. It implies that you're going to kill it."_

_He looked down at his daughter. "It's not my first choice," he whispered back. "But we're trapped, and it's dangerous and we can't let it get out. It'll cause carnage."_

"_We don't know that," she hissed back. "It could just be scared."_

"_Those cats we saw in pieces suggest otherwise."_

"_Oh, and that bacon you're so fond of suddenly means that you're a monster that needs to be put down," she snapped back. She ducked back behind the boxes and he followed her. "Just because it's hungry doesn't mean it's dangerous. And just because we chased it into the dark, scary building doesn't mean that it's trying to lead us to its death. It could be the interplanetary version of a mountain lion. Would you call a mountain lion evil?"_

"_No, I would call it a danger," he replied. "I don't want to kill it. I'm just saying that it is something we're going to have to consider."_

_She couldn't deny that. It was a rather disappointing part of her life, that sometimes the way to save everyone was to kill the creature that was doing the damage. She had no qualms doing it to people who knew better, who were actively trying to make the universe a bad place. There was something rather sadistically satisfying about watching a Dalek explode, knowing the pain it would cause. A harmless creature, though, never sat right and it never felt right. Ultimately, it was just as scared and as hungry as the rest of them, and she had spent a lot of her time feeling both very acutely._

"_We're not going to kill it," she reiterated firmly. She looked back around the corner of the boxes. It was shaking the floor with each step, but in the dark she could see that it had a lot of fur and she knew it had a lot of teeth. "We just need to find River, then get hold of the Doctor. He can help us take it somewhere safe." Her eyes lit up and she turned to Jack. "Like a zoo!" she cried._

_Then she immediately winced as the creature roared, hearing her shout and she shot Jack a sheepish look. "Oops."_

_~0~0~0~_

Danni knew when the Doctor was looking for something specific. He went very quiet, and rather grumpy, and dismissed everyone around them until he found what he was looking for. Even if, sometimes, he wasn't sure what that thing was. That was why he was tapping on the register's screen with his 'attack eyebrows' out at full force. There had been a time in their lives where he would have pulled out his 'smart glasses' just to impress her. Luckily, he had retired the sonic sunglasses and they probably would have hindered his work considering how the only light source was the screen in front of him.

It was amazing what could go through someone's head whilst they were panicking. She thought a million and one different things about her husband – she _loved_ how his hair was longer than ever, and curly, and she always had the urge to just reach out and stroke her fingers through it – and yet every time she did, her thoughts were brought straight back to Missy and how she had probably destroyed the Earth by leaving her sonic screwdriver behind. It was like a heavy anchor, pulling her back, drowning her in the inability to focus.

Still, though, her mind seemed pretty set on the notion of keeping it to herself. And it wasn't as if it would help to tell him. They were nowhere near the TARDIS and they were more likely to get eaten on the way back than they were to make it safely. She was sure Nardole would notice anything amiss, anyway, and probably fetch the sonic screwdriver out before Missy could get her psychopathic hands on it.

Oh Lord, she was leaving the Earth in the hands of _Nardole_.

"Ah, here we go," the Doctor suddenly declared. "Glucosphere was bailed out of near bankruptcy five years ago by the government." He tapped his finger against the screen, which had an article about the history of the company. "With a huge sum, apparently. It's the most money they'd poured into a single, privately own company."

"So? Maybe they just wanted to make sure a lot of people didn't lose their livelihood," Grant reasoned. He really hadn't expected them to come up with anything except, perhaps, maybe a strange chemical spill that had gone very wrong.

"Big businesses fail all the time," Danni replied. "You can't bail them all out. What made this one so special?"

"According to this, it was their emphasis on 'research and development'," the Doctor recited.

"Which is just a politically-friendly way of saying 'they're doing something shady, but interesting, that we didn't want directly linked to us, so we bought off someone who could do it for us'," Danni added. She leant a bit closer to continue reading the article. "Seems people weren't happy with the fact that the government had wasted their taxes saving a company that went on to create zombie creatures. The message, along with a memorial garden, were put in place as show of good faith." She rocked back onto the flats of her feet. "A five second video and some flowers? That's the best they could come up with?"

"Don't forget the dome," Grant bit out. "I'm so glad I've never had to pay them any taxes."

"But why?" Danni asked, as the article was about as typically vague on the subject as she'd have expected. "Why did the government want a food additive company doing their dirty work for them?"

"Glucosphere probably were much more advanced than your typical government. Perhaps they needed something making."

"Or, maybe it's the food," she reasoned. "Maybe you've got a bit of a Bond-evil population control going on here."

"You think they were trying to poison us?" Darren asked slowly. She nodded towards the window.

"To me, it looks like they were succeeding," she replied. "I mean, it's quick-acting, it works. Those people have been surviving for four years only on sucking the occasional person to death. Most of them die, that's a rapidly reducing food source. And yet, they seem to be a rather spry bunch of zombies."

"But they're _zombies_," the Doctor pointed out. He loved watching her brain work, the thoughtful look on her face that would appear when she was quickly working something out. Sometimes she worked things out before him, sometimes he just loved watching her catch up. Either way, she'd always adored his 'smart glasses'. He'd just loved how clever she could be.

"It worked, though," she said. "It was quick, it spread, it converted all those who could be converted. Sure, I'm sure they didn't mean to make people actually eat each other." She then shrugged. "I mean,_ maybe_ they did. But apart from the fact that the wrong thing spread, it still spread, and it spread well."

"Exactly," he replied. "Just because it's the wrong poison, doesn't mean it's still not poison." He turned back to the monitor. "Just because you're a llama instead of being dead doesn't mean you're still not a llama."

Danni stared at him, a little baffled before being rather amused. "Did you just…"

"What can I say, I'm sucker for a Disney movie," he retorted. "The question isn't why Glucosphere, it's why poison? Whatever they were trying to do wasn't supposed to be this deadly, so if we can work out their original plan, we can work out why the food additives and then, finally, maybe we can find out how to stop it."

Grant leaned into the conversation a little more. "Stop it? Stop it how?"

"At the very least, let's hope we can stop it spreading any more. Contain the infected," he explained.

There was a loud rumbling outside, the sound of a lot of people heading their way and they all knew that it meant more of the creatures were approaching. They all dropped to the floor in a crouch, keeping quiet. Shadows of lurching figures stretched on the floor as they made their way past, looking for more food.

"We still need information on what they were actually making," Danni whispered lowly. "Is there anyone still around who worked for them who we can actually talk to?"

"Only Debbie," Grant whispered in reply. "She was part of the admin team. She was on maternity when the outbreak happened, so she never caught up in it."

"And she would be…"

"At the town hall, with everyone else."

Danni looked at the Doctor. "I guess that's where we're off next, then."

_~0~0~0~_

"_Can't you ever do anything right?" River snapped. She was angry. She was pissed. Even in the dark, Jack could see how her eyes had narrowed and how she straightened. She looked ready to throttle him._

"_What was I supposed to do? She ran out!" he argued back. "If I'd grabbed her, it would have slowed her down and we both would have been eaten. Her best chance was running away."_

"_With it chasing her! What kind of father are you?" she continued. "If she dies, it's your fault."_

"_Actually, I think it'd be the monster's fault," Jack joked, unable to help himself. There was something about riling River up that he just couldn't resist. And, right on cue, she moved forward, as if she was about to hit him._

"_You," she started. "You aren't allowed to speak anymore. You're not in charge of any of us, Captain Flash." She walked over to the door out of the small office. "You're going to follow my lead, understood?"_

"_If I recall correctly, me following your lead is what got us into this in the first place," he teased._

"_And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"_

"_Well, it was your idea to go out for dinner," he reminded her. "And then it was your idea to follow the sound of footsteps."_

"_No, actually, that was Danni," River corrected. "She thought someone might be in trouble. I just… encouraged her." She opened the door, dipping her head out. There was no sign of either the monster or her daughter. She closed it again. "She's been doing better lately. Perhaps what you're seeing is me being the only person trying to help her."_

"_She's fine," Jack insisted._

"_No, she's not," she corrected. "This is the first time I've seen is her, on her own, being concerned about other people. Not just herself, or the Doctor, or even us. These are people she doesn't know. They might not have even existed. She just decided that they needed helping. That's progress, and I don't see you getting results."_

"_I'm sorry, I can't help it if redecorating my house every other day is how she relaxes," he countered. "At least when I'm helping, I'm also not getting all of us killed."_

"_If we waited around for her to change wallpaper to confront her feelings, the night would have come and gone," River snapped. "She needs us to make her face how she's changed, and how she obviously doesn't like it. Then we can get around to actually spending time together, mother and daughter."_

"_And father," he snapped back. "She wanted me here, I'm not going anywhere, no matter how much you want to argue with me. You're not driving me away."_

"_Can't you, just for once, let us have some time together without sticking your giant head into it?" _

"_If she invites me, I'm going to say yes. Maybe you should work on being better company instead."_

"_She just feels sorry for you," River retorted. "Don't think for one…"_

_She was suddenly interrupted by three gunshots, all in quick succession and they both knew what that meant. Their argument quickly fell away as, without a word, they ran together towards the sound._

_~0~0~0~_

Getting to the townhall had been an ordeal that Danni had only been partly present for. Each step, each shadow, was now Missy stretching out to her and it wasn't a paranoia that she'd suffered from in many years. Somehow, being on high alert for an evil mastermind of a Time Lady made her very unaware of where they were actually going until she saw the building. The windows were painted black, but there was a glowing light coming from wherever it had peeled off. She blinked to herself, looking around, trying to remember the streets they had taken. She could not.

There was a small group of people inside. They all looked young, which was somehow even more depressing than having a group of people over many generations. They all stared at the new people like they hadn't seen anyone knew in four years.

Which they hadn't. It was a stupid thought.

Grant introduced them, and explained that the Doctor and Danni were there to help. There was a lot of distrust on the faces that Danni could understand, or would have understood had she been paying attention to anything at all. Even as they were led over to the secretary that Grant had mentioned, all she could do was stand with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently, because she was over this whole thing. She'd enjoyed the shouting, and the solving, and the snuggling in the dark room had been nice. Now, though, as it stretched on and on, she just wanted to get away.

"I don't have anything new to say," the woman stated, glancing again at her toddler, who was asleep just away from them. She was probably concerned that they were going to take her child. That definitely wasn't going to happen, but Danni admired her concern. She appreciated a person who had their and their family's safety at the forefront of their mind.

"I know, but just assume we're both idiots," the Doctor replied. "Please, just tell us what you know."

The woman shrugged. "All I know is that there was a bid from the government shortly after I first started. There were rumours of genetic testing, but I didn't pay attention because it seemed so stupid."

"Well, hindsight is twenty-twenty," Danni said offhandedly, like she was paying attention, which she certainly was not. "So, the government were genetically engineering something to do with food? For what? If they're wanting to poison the population, it would be a good way to go. People will always need to eat." She looked to the Doctor. Even though she was the one who first suggested it, and it made a lot of sense, it still didn't feel right. The accident, the dome, the people trapped i side… it felt too messy. "This doesn't feel like supervillain levels of population control, though, does it? For a start, it would appear that this was all an accident."

For some reason, one that he couldn't quite place and one he didn't particularly want to admit to, the fact that her brain went straight for comic book supervillainy rather than governmental corruption was rather amusing. Now unable to look at her for fear of smiling and getting on her nerves, he kept his attention firmly on the woman with the child in front of him.

"One thing I have never understood is how people underestimate the admin staff," he declared. "They're everywhere, but no one seems to notice or care, even though they're the ones keeping the cogs moving." He stepped a little closer. "I'm sure people always talked like you weren't there. You probably got used to it, just carried on with your job and let them gossip around you. It wasn't any business of yours, after all." Debbie nodded. "I bet, for a while, that made you feel terrible, but eventually you just didn't care."

She shrugged, although she wasn't quite sure what it had to do with what had happened to their lovely town. "You just come to realise that they may look down on you, but you were obviously happier than they ever would be. Just because…"

"Yes, yes, all of that," he dismissed before she could start yammering on. "It's all very inspiring. Tell me about the stuff that you overheard and didn't dismiss. Something that made you pause, just for a moment longer than you normally would. There's something in there," he pointed at her forehead, "in that brain of yours that you still remember even though you don't know why. What is it?"

They all watched as Debbie frowned to herself, thinking back over a time that was very different than it was now. It looked like she was thinking hard, for a moment Danni wondered if she was going to burst a blood vessel. Then she looked up and stared straight at the Doctor.

"There was something," she agreed and his face lit up in delight. "One of the execs, Fiona, mentioned something about extending everyone's life. Changing what it meant to be human."

Danni's eyes widened in horror. Her chest tightened; her hearts skipped a beat. Both of them knew what that meant. Someone was meddling with genetics, trying to make everyone live that little bit longer. It wasn't new, in fact people were always meddling with how humans worked. Not too long ago in their history, she, the Doctor and Jack had fought Sleep monsters who came from one man wanting to sleep less. But the words she used couldn't stop her zooming back into her memories, to a time long ago when she was ginger and clueless. To a man with a cackle that echoed in everyone's nightmares, and to a man who had tracked her down and contacted her the moment he could.

The Doctor, on the other hand, had that morbid feeling of excitement when he knew that their adventure had become more interesting. An impossible situation, genetic engineering and not a lot of time or resources to fix the situation. This was his time to shine. "Well, we know what we have to do," he declared.

"Yeah," Danni replied. "We have to kill them."

_~0~0~0~_

"_Over here."_

_River turned on her heels and moved over to Jack with the grace of someone who had been trained to keep an eye on her surroundings no matter what situation she was in. It turned out that, in one dark warehouse room, he'd spotted the creature lying on the floor. It was quite obviously dead, but neither of them took their chances and approached it slowly, guns at the ready._

"_Danni?" Jack called out. _

"_Over here."_

_Her voice sounded like it should have been quiet, but it had echoed against the metal walls, so they could hear her. She was sat on the floor, back against the wall, on the opposite side of the creature. Jack clipped his gun back into the place and rushed over to her but River took a little longer. The last thing they needed was for it to jump off the floor and attack them when they weren't paying attention._

_He crouched in front of his daughter. "Are you alright?" he asked as he noticed the way her sleeve was torn. He grabbed it, pulling back the tattered fabric. The scratch was pretty deep and looked painful. _

"_It's fine. I'll heal. I always do," she told him. She sounded exhausted and she looked up and met his eyes. She looked devastated. "I didn't mean to kill it."_

"_I know," he replied._

"_I just wanted to help," she continued. "I just- I didn't want anyone to get hurt, I wasn't trying to kill anything."_

"_I know," he replied again as he could tell that she was more upset with shooting than she was at being attacked. "You didn't have any choice." Apparently, that was the worst thing he could have said. What he'd meant as a comforting statement caused her to look absolutely horrified. "What is it?" he asked._

"_There's always a choice," she stated. "I didn't have to shoot just because I was scared. No one deserves to die like that. It-It was probably hungry, or scared itself and I made us hound it like it was some sort of animal being hunted. If I hadn't wanted a little adventure, it might still be alive."_

"_Or it might have killed you and everyone else," Jack countered. "You did the right thing, Danni."_

_Her arm looked worse than it seemed to be, and she was right, she would heal right up. So instead of tending to it more where they were sat, he helped her to her feet._

"_None of this feels like the right thing," she told him sadly. He held her close and he and River walked her out. She held onto her mum's hand tightly and as they walked past the creature, she looked back and stared at it, heartbroken._

"_I never meant for anyone to die."_

_~0~0~0~_

She could tell the Doctor was starting at her like she had two heads, but she stood a little straighter, refusing to back down. She had known that her suggestion was going to be met with some pushback – he was softer than her, no matter what people thought – but she also knew that he was sensible. He had probably already seen what she was saying was true, he was just fighting it. She loved his good hearts. But she didn't have time to think with her hearts.

"We can't just kill them," he stated. "They're-They're human, they're people."

"No, they _were_ people. Now they're mindless animals who infect everyone they touch," she retorted. "What are we supposed to do, exactly? Leave them wandering around an empty town where they'll just starve to death?"

"We don't know if they'll starve."

"No, you're right, we don't. All we know is that they like to drink people like they're soup and, if they're lucky, they just die."

"Danielle, listen to yourself."

Her eyes flashed angrily. "You think I'm just suggesting this like it's what I want for lunch," she snapped. "We don't have the luxury of choice, here. We either save them, or save everyone else. We _could_ try and trap them in the dome, but there's no telling if they'll find their way out. We managed to get in, after all. We can't let an unknown threat out on the rest of the planet."

"We don't know what they are," the Doctor protested. "They were humans, once, there still might be a chance to revert the change."

"And you think they'll want that?"

"Who wouldn't?"

"Oh, I dunno, how about anyone?" she exclaimed. "Would you want to know about all the people you'd slurped up over your time? Nobody wants to have to live with the pain they've caused."

"It's not their fault…"

"No, it's not, but that doesn't mean they won't feel the pain," she cut it. "It doesn't mean they won't feel the hurt, and the death. No one wants to face the damage they've caused. No one ever wants to face the monsters they've become. And you know that. That's why holding up a mirror to the universe is your signature move. It's why we turn off the inhibitor chips in the Cybermen to stop them. It doesn't _matter_ if it's your fault or not. No one wants to live with that!"

The Doctor could see the passion she was feeling, and it did take him a moment to realise where it came from. "I'm a bit slow, aren't I?" he asked her.

She just looked confused, and a little frustrated. "What?"

"Old age does that to me," he continued. He grabbed her hand. "Next time, I'll choose the destination."

"I really have no idea what you're talking about," she told him bluntly.

"You've been running all day. Trying to get away from something that you don't want to share with me. And that's fine, I understand. No one wants to face the pain they've caused. But these people didn't cause the pain. No one chose to be like this. And we might not be able to save them all, but…"

"But we have to save who we can," she finished for him. She sighed heavily. He thought she was seeing herself in the mindless monsters. A part of her was, most likely. She needed to tell him what was wrong. She needed to tell him about the screwdriver. She needed him to know how unsafe she felt, because if anyone could make her feel better, it was him. She couldn't just keep ignoring the problem.

_You can't ignore me forever._

She wasn't ignoring the Missy problem, though. There was another, much scarier, problem she was trying to avoid. One with a killer beard and the ability to make her do whatever he wanted and make it feel like her idea. A man she used as an _escape_ from Missy despite being the same person. A mand that had her email address, despite the fact that he was trapped at the end of the universe. Except, though, he wasn't. He was here. Alive, and actively looking for her.

And sending her _selfies_.

"You're right, you're right," she conceded, but she made sure it sounded like she wasn't too happy at that fact. She couldn't think about his selfies. She _could_ however, pretend that it never happened. She could hide. She hid from the biggest evil in the universe for _years_. Hiding from her fears was no problem at all.

_~0~0~0~_

_Let's be real here, this chapter is pretty trashy. I know it wasn't worth the wait, but I hope you enjoyed some of it, anyway?_

_Thanks for all the lovely reviews whilst I was away :)_

_Stay safe._


	13. The Spaceship

"Never again."

"You know you loved it," Danni replied, turning and walking backwards towards the TARDIS console. "You're never as happy as you are in the middle of a panic, monologuing to a bad guy." She smirked. "Admit it, you were in your element."

The Doctor shut the door behind him. "Danielle, I was just trying to save people. There was no 'monologuing'."

She snorted and turned back to the console. "Now who's lying to themselves?" she muttered.

"Sometimes I have to wonder who you think I am," he replied.

"Well, that's easy," she retorted. She turned back around and leant against the console. "An old armature, who claims that he's not a hero, but just a man passing through. Except, of course, he's not just passing through, he's actually just looking for more stories to tell."

"Does this make a good one?" he asked. She shrugged.

"Depends on how you tell it."

He loved the little smirk on her face as she watched him walk over. "Well, once upon a time there was a Time Lord, who had a wonderfully gorgeous wife, who felt like she needed to run away to have an adventure. So, as he was brilliantly accommodating, he obliged and let her choose the destination."

"So far so good," she praised. "Could do with more information on the gorgeous wife, though."

"Where they landed had been ravaged by decay and disorder," he continued as he quickly set them into flight. "People had been left to rot underneath the oppressive dome of governmental control. Well, she couldn't stand for it, and neither could he. Together they discovered that the local workforce had been infected by an evil supervillain, someone who had worked their way high up into said government. He had claimed to them all he wanted to cure the ills of humanity, instead he wanted to control them. He'd poisoned the food supply, and only a few, extraordinary people remained."

"Very gripping," she replied. "However did they survive?"

"With the help of the Time Lord and his wife, they broke into the factory where the corruption had first spread from. It was heavily guarded, but they all bravely fought their way to the middle, where an evil most horrid was waiting for them."

"'An evil most horrid'?" Danni repeated and he nodded.

"Oh, the evillest evil that had ever lived; capitalism," he said most seriously, and she couldn't help but giggle. "You see, the factory had been taken over by corruption, and it in turn had corrupted the people who worked there. People who just wanted to provide for their family were turned to monsters by the machines that were in place to look after them. And at the centre of it all was a supervillain who only saw people as money making machines, and the catastrophe he caused a loss to take into consideration in his budget."

"He's sounds like a dick."

"He was the biggest dick," the Doctor agreed. "But, as it slowly came to light that the people he'd corrupted couldn't be saved, the Time Lords set to work on saving the people they could. The Doctor, the brave and incredibly smart Time Lord, distracted the supervillain."

"You mean you monologued," Danni corrected.

"Whilst the also incredibly smart—"

"And beautiful."

"- and _modest_ Danielle set to work hacking a government system, deploying several high-grade helicopters to destroy the dome that kept the survivors trapped in hell."

"Don't forget about how she managed to get the supervillain to admit to his deeds across a national television network that immediately led to his arrest," she added.

"If you'd let me finish, I was about to get to that part," he said pointedly. She waved her hand for him to continue.

"So the supervillain was arrested, the survivors were allowed to leave their hellhole and the town was cut off from the outside world, as a monument to the mistakes of the past, and how they could do better in the future."

"And everyone lived?" she asked, sounding a little hopeful. He shot her a sad smile.

"And they all lived," he lied, pulling her closer. They both needed a happier ending to this particular story. "Happily ever after."

She leant up and kissed him. "I think, so far, we're doing well on that front," she said as they broke apart, clearing her throat. "We should go somewhere else."

As she turned to set them on course, he pulled her back to him. "Danielle, I know you don't like Missy being in the basement—"

"No, I _hate_ having her in the basement," she corrected.

"But we do have to go check on her," he finished. "Let's just head back for the evening, tomorrow we can go somewhere else. It is the weekend, after all. And we have a time machine."

"We do have a time machine," she said, trying to tempt him. "We can go anywhere, or any when and you want to go back to Bristol?"

"I have a duty," he reminded her. "One that you are always rather keen on bringing up whenever I'm trying to do something fun."

"Now, wait a minute…"

"So, now, I'm bringing up when you're trying to do something fun."

He turned her around to set them back on course to the university, and to the corner of his office where most people didn't spot their unique home. He didn't particularly want to stop the trip, either, but he knew she was running away from the monster she thought lived in their basement. Her little stumble about wanting to let people die was just yet another sign that his work with Missy was not yet complete. The sooner he could finish her recovery process, the sooner Danielle would allow herself to do the same.

Danni, on the other hand, could think of nothing worse than heading back for the night. It was very easy to fall into a routine once you stopped travelling, and that was the last thing she wanted. Going back to the university meant classes, and hiding, and Vaults under the ground. It meant broken laptops with emails on that she did not want to face. It meant her curiosity would be spiked because she'd become bored, and she would email Koschei back. And she'd keep it to herself because of that little voice in her head that would tell her that the Master wouldn't want the Doctor to know they were in contact, because if he had that's who he would have emailed.

And she knew that she'd listen to that little voice, and fall down a hole she wasn't sure she'd be able to climb out of.

So, again, she flipped the switch to stop the flight before the landed on the other side. "Alright, I can see that we're in a bit of a stalemate here," she replied. "So, I suggest compromise."

He tried not to smile. "Oh?"

"How about we head back to the university, you check the Vault, get the reports, but _don't_ go inside. Then, once you're happy, we can shoot off into the stars." She could see that he didn't look too convinced. "With a companion."

That spiked his interest. If she was eager enough to allow Bill to go on their trip, she must have been rather desperate to keep the adventures going. So was he, but he was more concerned about how she was running in a way he hadn't seen her run since, perhaps before she had first regenerated, way back when she was still jumping around his timeline. She was obviously terrified of something, and he knew that thing was Missy. He hated it, and it made him reconsider the vow he had taken. However, he couldn't back out now so he had to make it easier for her.

"Alright, Mrs Fielding," he declared. "I accept your terms." She grinned, proud of herself, and held out her hand for him to shake it and finish the deal.

"Oh, no, my pet," he purred. "This deal deserves to be sealed with a kiss."

_~0~0~0~_

Having landed in the Doctor's office slightly later than they both had planned, they both stepped out of the TARDIS. The office was a really nice place, and showed all of the Doctor's personalities well. Still, Danni wasn't particularly happy to be back and looked around with a look of slight distain.

"I won't be long," he told her. "Have a cup of tea, it might calm you down."

"Going somewhere else would calm me down," she muttered. "Try not to get too distracted on your way."

He was slightly offended. "I'm not that easily distracted," he pointed out and she let out a laugh.

"Oh? Then why did it take over an hour to get back here?" she teased.

"Because _you're_ incredibly distracting," he retorted. She nodded in agreement.

"That is very true. I'm quite delicious, aren't I?"

He laughed and headed to his desk. "Maybe you could get a head start on your homework," he suggested. "We can't pick Bill up until tomorrow, and I'd rather like you to be free and not worrying about essays."

"I don't worry about essays. I always ace them," she said as he picked up her laptop bag. He frowned at the rattle that it made.

"Computers aren't supposed to make that noise," he said.

She shrugged. "Oh, it's broke," she told him, which wasn't a complete lie. "It hit the ground pretty hard. The screen smashed and a load of the keys came off. I'll just get a new one and try and fix it at some point."

She was normally pretty careful with her electronics, especially when they were given to her by the TARDIS, but still he handed it back to her. "I thought you weren't clumsy anymore," he replied with a cheeky grin.

"I'm not," she replied. "Not my fault people startle me." She turned her back to him and headed back into the TARDIS. "Don't be long. I'm timing you."

"Of course you are," he murmured, and although he knew she was only teasing him, he made sure he took the quickest route down to the basement. She might not have actually been timing him, but she would be worried from the moment he got down there until the moment he came back.

He was very lucky, because Nardole must have finished his own duties for the evening and wasn't down there when he arrived. Instead he was able to walk up to the controls and do a quick check over them to make sure everything was running smoothly before, inevitably, he opened the door and went inside.

Missy, whether trying to be good or just pretending, was in the middle of the glass cube in the middle of the room, waiting patiently for him to come in. She looked mildly surprised that he had come to visit, but then again it was a little late for anyone to see her.

"Doctor, what a pleasant surprise," she greeted.

"If you like," he replied, looking around the room to see if he could find any issues with it. He wouldn't want to Vault breaking down and giving her a way to escape. "How are you doing? Do you need any…"

He trailed off as he spotted the sonic screwdriver sat nicely on top of one of the end tables at the seating area. "Where did you get that?" he asked, storming over and picking it up.

Missy walked over to the glass wall closest to him. "Oh, Danielle left it," she replied.

"She came to visit you?"

"Just this afternoon," she replied. "She was very upset, but I managed to calm her down. Did she not mention it?"

No, she hadn't mentioned it, but it did explain a lot. Like, for example, how she wanted to be anywhere else but at the university. Also why she didn't have her sonic screwdriver when she'd needed it. Her dropping it, though, suggests that Missy hadn't calmed her down at all, but instead had riled her up.

What had upset her so much that she'd gone to Missy instead of him?

He turned the sonic screwdriver over in between his fingers. It was modelled off his old one, but it looked so much different now that the only thing that made them similar was the blue light they both had. But it felt so much like it fit her personality still that he didn't really mind. Maybe next time they'll have matching ones again.

"Did-Did I do good?" Missy asked him and he looked back up at her. She had pleading eyes, almost like she was actually in need of his approval. That was definitely a new step for her. "I placed it on the table, I never used it. I wasn't even tempted."

He raised an eyebrow. That was a lie and even she seemed to realised that. "Alright, I was tempted, but I _didn't_. I thought 'what would the Doctor do?' and I put it straight back."

He pointed the screwdriver at her. "What did Danielle want?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. She was ranting about her laptop, but it didn't make a lot of sense. Then she stormed out when she became more upset." She shrugged, trying to act aloof. "The computer was in a state, I'm surprised you've let her have something so tatty. You normally spoil her to the point of repulsion. You really should get your pet potato to keep a better eye on her if she's that prone to becoming distressed."

He opened his mouth to protest her nickname for Nardole, but then he rather agreed that he looked a little like a potato. "She is her own person. And the reason she gets so upset is currently trapped in a glass cube," he pointed out. "Maybe your advice on what is good for her isn't excellent." He turned and walked back to the door. "She won't be coming to see you again until she is ready."

"I was only trying to keep her safe!" Missy called after him. "Isn't that good?"

He paused. "No," he replied softly. "And that's why we need to work on it."

He stepped out, making sure to lock the door behind him. He then checked over the system again to make sure it was working properly.

She had gone to see Missy about her laptop? The broken one that had been sat at his desk? There was something going on that she didn't want him to know about. He had tried to be open and honest with her the best he could, to know she wasn't telling him something that was worrying her so much did hurt just a little. But, then again, he knew that she still struggled with opening herself up too much after her ordeal with Missy. She would come to him when she was good and ready.

He pocketed her sonic screwdriver. She probably knew exactly where she left her sonic screwdriver, and he didn't want her to know that he'd spent too long in the Vault, but he couldn't exactly leave it in the Vault either. He would have to keep it on him until the opportune moment. He just wasn't sure when that was.

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor felt cheated.

"You said companions," he said to Danni, who nodded.

"I did. And look," she nodded at the group around the console. "We have companions."

He scowled and she beamed, knowing that she had tricked him quite successfully. Bill had been very eager to join in on another trip, even if she still felt rather uncomfortable around Danni. The Doctor had been pleased, and had been ready to take them off when Danni had shaken her head and took them somewhere else.

And that was why Nardole was stood next to Bill, looking a little less than pleased about being there. Not that the Doctor was pleased he was there, either. Nardole had not wanted to leave the Vault unattended and the Doctor had tried to reason that he had been right.

"Two Time Lords, two companions," Danni had simply reasoned, too stubborn to be dissuaded.

"And you think it's going to be fun with _him_ here?" he asked.

"Oi, I've told you; be nice to Nardole," she warned before walking to the console. "Are we going random?"

"I must protest," Nardole spoke up.

"Yes, I know, you've protested all of the way here," she retorted. "And I'm just going to reiterate yet again; Nardole, shut up."

"Where are we going?" Bill asked. She hadn't been too sure about going on another trip with Danielle, especially considering that she still wasn't sure if they liked each other yet or not. But who could ignore the call of a time machine?

"Space," the Doctor replied offhandedly, before his eyes lit up. Actually, that was a great idea. He took over the driving, setting a course to something a little more spacey than their last trip out. "Going to space is exactly like camping."

"Is it?"

"No," Danni replied for him. "It's dark, and cold, there's nothing as far as the eye can see and its incredibly beautiful." She frowned in thought for a moment. "Actually, maybe it _is_ a little like camping."

"And too much between you and the outside, and you might as well stay home," the Doctor added. "To really feel it, you need the space equivalent of a wafer-thin sleeping bag and a leaky two-man tent." He motioned Bill over. "So, pick a site."

He brought up a map to show her. It had plenty of destinations of choice, but Danni could see the larger dot in the middle of many that looked the most interesting. That was a distress signal, but the Doctor wasn't heading straight towards it.

"What about…"

"Danielle," he cut in. "Let the _companion_ decide."

She scowled right back. He was asking Bill to annoy her. This was his way of getting back at her for bringing Nardole, who right on cue spoke up again. "We shouldn't be going anywhere," he reminded. "You have responsibilities."

"We have a time machine, my responsibilities will be there when we get back," the Doctor retorted. "If you're going to be this annoying then you're not coming again."

"I didn't want to come this time."

"Of course you did," Danni retorted.

"Got any reviews?"

They all looked at Bill, who was asking a genuine question and didn't quite understand why what she'd said had caused such a reaction. "What?"

"You know, like for restaurant," she explained. "Waiter was a bit handsy, lasagne gave me the trots. Two stars."

His slightly baffled look didn't change. "Strangely, no."

She thought it was a good idea. Maybe like a Yelp website, but for space and without all the hate and swearing. She let out a noise of pure excitement and then jabbed at the screen. "That one."

"Ah," the Doctor replied, not pleased with her choice. He had hoped that she would have seen what Danielle had seen, but she had just randomly picked one. He would just have to direct her to make the right decision. "Yes, well, possibly we could go there, pitch our tent next to the toilet block. How about something a bit more exciting?" He tapped the other point, which started to glow red and beep to show what the TARDIS had picked up.

"What's that?" she asked.

"That is my theme tune. Otherwise known as a distress call."

"I thought _she_ was deciding, not you," Danni called out. She smiled brightly at him when he turned to protest. "I just thought you'd want to stick to your own ruling, sweetie, instead of pointing her in the direction you'd like to go."

"You like distress calls?" Bill asked him.

"You only really see the true face of the universe when it's asking for your help," he replied, which was very true, even though it was hard to deny that he didn't also like them because he loved a bit of adventure.

"I haven't seen my true face in years," Nardole spoke up, giving his face a bit of a squeeze. "Swapped it for this one on the run."

Danni looked to him, intrigued. "Really?" she asked.

"Oh yes," he confirmed. "It was before I met your mother. It's a very interesting story, actually. Involves a casino, three Judoon and a small, overpopulated planet with a gigantic sea monster."

"You've not told me that one before. You've been holding out on me."

He shrugged. "Sometimes I forget things. When you've got so much under your belt, it's hard to keep track."

She nodded along. "That's very true. Did I tell you about the time a prince tried to steal my elbows?"

"No, I don't think you have," he replied. "Perhaps we could make an evening of it? Share body-part stories. I'll make crumpets."

"Then I'll need to tell you about the time I lost my right eye in a poker match…"

"Can we focus on the matter at hand, here?" the Doctor cut in, and whilst Bill agreed about not getting distracted, she also wanted to know how someone could lose an eye in a poker match, and also still have the eye. "There's a distress call that we are currently ignoring while you two compare medical histories."

Nardole sighed and pulled out a small metal tube. "Do you know what this is?" he asked the Doctor.

"Unless it's a beacon, I'm not interested."

"Fluid link K57. Removed it from the TARDIS the other night after your lecture," he explained.

"Nardole!" Danni scolded. "I've told you about stealing things from the TARDIS. You should ask first."

"You took an oath, sir. The Vault cannot be unguarded. I am acting under your orders!"

"What's a fluid link?" Bill asked.

"No idea," he admitted freely. "But the TARDIS can't go anywhere without it."

"And who told you that?" Danni asked him.

"The Doctor did," he replied with a nod.

"Exactly." The Doctor snapped his fingers and the TARDIS started to fly again. With a flick of a switch they were on their way to the distress call. "Teach you to trust me."

Danni started laughing as Nardole sputtered indignantly at being tricked by the other Time Lord. She patted him on the arm. "Oh, come on Nardole. You've had at least two faces, why not use one to live a little?"

_~0~0~0~_

The space station they landed on was dark and grey, which didn't give much indication of where they had landed. The Doctor stepped out first, sonic screwdriver in hand as he gave the area a quick scan to assess their situation.

"I'm a bit cross with you, sir," Nardole told him as he stepped out.

"Well, usually, yeah," Danni retorted as she followed. Bill was last, looking around with a big smile on her face. She was on a space ship. An actual space ship, and it looked like something out of the movies, which automatically meant that she knew it was real.

As she stepped to continue on her exploring journey, the Doctor held his arm out and stopped her moving. "Wait. There's no oxygen."

She frowned. "What? Well, how come we're breathing?"

"Air shell around the TARDIS. Hang on." He held up his screwdriver behind his shoulder, showing off as the doors both flew open and a whoosh of air hit them as it escaped. "Now there's a really big air shell around the TARDIS."

"How big?"

The Doctor held out the sonic to turn on all the lights down a hallway to light their way. "Big enough for a stroll," he replied before he held out his arm to Danni. She took it and the pair started off down the hallway.

"You don't need to show off everywhere, you know?" she said with a tease. "You've already got me."

"I'm not showing off," he protested. "I can't help being that impressive. It's a curse, really."

She rolled her eyes. "Sure."

He came to a stop. "Plus, if I were to show off, this is how I'd do it." He took hold of both of her arms and turned her to face a door in the wall. A door with a window that showed off the absolutely breath-taking view outside.

Some things never did change, and he knew it was a cheap trick, but he could always impress her with a stunning view of the universe. She took a step towards it and he let her, watching with a smirk.

"Aw! Now it feels like space!" Bill said from her side as she saw the sight outside as well. The Doctor left them to watch the splendour as he headed down the hallway, towards the next door.

Nardole followed. "You shouldn't be leaving her on her own," he scolded.

"She's a big girl, she can handle looking out of a window without someone there to keep an eye on her," the Doctor retorted.

"You've changed your tune, considering you keep telling me to keep an eye on her."

"Yes, because that's your job," he replied. He was even unable to enjoy the old-fashioned door, which he really enjoyed because people never appreciated the beauty in older technologies. "And you've been doing a terrible job of it."

"You're the one who's brought her to a space station without a care."

The Doctor paused, glancing back at Danni, who was still enraptured with the sight outside. Feeling safe, he dipped down and glared at Nardole. "Yes, and you're the one who let her into the Vault on her own," he hissed. "I should fire you." He straightened. "Or, at least, tell River what a poor job you've been doing."

Nardole, to his credit, looked surprised for a moment. "I didn't let her do anything," he protested, also keeping his voice low. "How do you know that?"

The Doctor held up his screwdriver. "I know everything," he replied before opening the door.

Bill, feeling like she'd enjoyed the view for long enough, left Danni at the window to join the two. They were bickering, which seemed to be the default for this strange bunch and just made her feel like she really _was_ the youngest out of the bunch.

"Er, guys?" she said to interrupting them, nodding towards the person in a spacesuit that the Doctor had revealed.

The Doctor turned and started at the sight. "Hello?" he called but the person didn't reply, or move, or make any indication that he had heard them at all. He took a large step into the room, slowly walking around to make sure they weren't dangerous.

His intrigue fell at the sight of the man's grey skin and white eyes. He definitely wasn't well, or alive, and he used his screwdriver to double check. "He's dead."

Immediately he looked down the hallway at Danielle, but she still seemed to be happily looking out of the window. With a man who was quite obviously starved of oxygen and a distress call, the time for impressing her was over. "Danielle," he called and she looked over at him. He nodded at the dead man to let her know something was wrong.

"How can he be dead? He's standing up," Bill asked.

"No, his suit's standing up. He's just along for the ride."

Bill was very unhappy to hear that, and her panic sparked into indignation for the disrespect that the poor man was being shown. Danni could just hear them, and took another look at the TARDIS to make sure the blue box was safe.

_Air costs. Save your breath_.

She frowned at the poster on the wall by the doorway to the TARDIS. It was obviously an official poster, so it wasn't trying to give some social commentary. They were actually trying to conserve air because it cost too much.

She wrinkled her nose as she headed to her husband. They'd managed to find the repair bay, by the looks of it, as there were three suits hanging to one side and a bay that looked ready to analyse them. She immediately wanted to have a look around, but she suspected that wasn't why the Doctor had brought her in.

"You know, the future is always a little less progressive than I'd like it to be," she told him.

"I think our friend here agrees," he replied, nodding at the man. She frowned as she dipped down to look him over. His white eyes were incredibly creepy, and it felt rather horrid to have him stood up on his own.

"Did he suffocate?" she asked.

"Well, his tank's full. And his field's up," Nardole replied.

"His what?" Bill asked as he reached out to tap the man on the face. A forcefield flashed up.

"It keeps the air in."

"Well, look, can we just, like, lie him down or something? I mean, this isn't right," Bill spluttered out, still very uncomfortable at the sight of a dead body. Danni could relate, she still felt like that a little, but they didn't have time for someone being upset at a corpse. He didn't do anything wrong, after all. He was dead.

"No, it isn't. It isn't," the Doctor agreed as he checked the computer system with a little tap from his screwdriver. Mining Station Chasm Forge. Crew of forty. I've got thirty-six records of life signs terminated. Last log entry, Station declared non-profitable."

"Yeah, your workers all dying'll do that for you," Nardole replied.

"Makes the air too expensive," Danni added, looking at his tank. "They've saved quite a bit with this guy."

The Doctor frowned, wondering where she had found that little bit of commentary from. It was a bit of a strange thing to say in the face of a dead man, even for her as she'd become a little desensitized to it all.

There was a clang from behind the next door and they all looked at it, suspicious considering that they'd come across a dead man. Strange noises were never a good sign in any situation.

Nardole clapped his hands together. "Okay then! Back to the TARDIS," he suggested pointedly. "Lovely in there. Nice and cosy."

Danni rolled her eyes. "Oh, for god's sake, if you want to go, then go," she snapped. "And take Bill with you. She doesn't need to be here either."

Bill straightened slightly, insulted at being so quickly dismissed. Nardole shook his head. "Ma'am, you cannot want to stay here when you have a rather large duty at home," he replied pointedly.

"The only reason you're here is because the Doctor wouldn't come unless we brought Bill," she retorted. "There's something going on here, something that caused four people to send out a distress call and _we're_ going to find out why they all appear to be dying."

"The universe shows its true face when it asks for help," the Doctor added. "We show ours by how we respond."

He turned to the next bulkhead door as whatever was on the other side made another clanging sound. He sonicked it open before anyone else could object. "Any questions?"

Bill opened her mouth to speak, as she had many questions. Did Danni really not want her there? Would the Doctor only go on a trip if she was there? Why didn't he want to go on a trip with his wife? What was in that Vault they were all so concerned about? Were they really going to head straight into danger when there was obviously something deadly going on? Did they never go on any nice trips?

"Good," the Doctor continued, cutting off any objections from any of them. Nardole was always going to complain, and tried his best to usher them back to the TARDIS. Bill, though, was just scared by the encounter with a dead body, and he knew that she was just as curious as everyone else. He could tell because if she had really wanted to leave then she would have just turned and walked away. She didn't normally keep opinions like that to herself.

They quietly made their way to the next room, where the was another space suit waiting for them. They didn't appear to be dead, which was definitely a plus as they were moving small containers from one side to the other. This one did, though, have a proper space helmet on rather than a forcefield, and they didn't stop or give any indication that they saw the new visitors.

The Doctor kept them in the hallway, but gave the suit a wave. "Hello?" he called, but they didn't respond or even stop their job. He motioned for them all to step in, and glanced down at Danni. They'd both come to the same conclusion, given her little smirk as she watched the suit move.

Bill stepped forward and waved her hand in front of the suit's face, but again it didn't stop its job. "Has he got his tunes on?" she asked.

"Not exactly," the Doctor replied lowly before pointing his sonic screwdriver at it. The helmet popped off, revealing that there was no one inside of it.

Bill and Nardole screamed in horrified surprise. Danni burst out laughing at their reaction.

"Calm down. It's empty," the Doctor told the pair.

"And you couldn't just tell us?" Nardole asked.

"Are you trying to scare us?" Bill demanded.

"Why did I do that?" he asked before glancing to his wife. "Danielle, why did I do that?"

"Because it was _fucking hilarious," _she said, wiping a tear from her eye.

"No," he replied. "Well, yes, but it was to max out your adrenaline. Fear keeps you fast. Fast is good."

"Which, when in imminent danger, is always a good thing," Danni added onto the end. She walked over to the suit, glancing down into the neck hole. When the Doctor had popped off its helmet, it had stopped moving. "Someone must have programmed it to continue on without a body," she mused. "Someone is going to notice." She held her hand out to the Doctor, who stared at her palm, confused. "Screwdriver?"

He was a little startled, caught out at having found her screwdriver down with Missy, despite promising that he wasn't going to go into the Vault. Then he realised that she was asking for his screwdriver and that she hadn't realised that at all. His hearts were pounding under his own adrenaline rush as he handed it to her.

"So, it's basically a robot?" Bill asked.

Danni took a moment to look over the suit. It was pretty simple, and it wasn't hard to find the display on its arm. She ignored the slight panic she felt whenever she saw something vaguely resembling a vortex manipulator. It had basic user readouts – which meant that this suit belonged to somebody, even if that body had disappeared – and it was in error mode. That didn't make a lot of sense, considering that it had been moving, but maybe it wasn't the suit's error. A glance at the oxygen pack showed that it had a full tank ready to be used.

"Ah, well. Sort of. Fairly dumb. Capable of simple tasks," he explained. He then turned to Nardole. "So you'd better watch your step. You could be out of a job."

"Doctor," Danni warned yet again. "Be nice."

"Thank you, ma'am," Nardole said, touched that she was standing up for him.

"We can't fire him, River hired him, not us," she continued before pressing a button on the display pad. "I think that should…"

"_Good morning. How may I assist?_" the suit spoke up.

Nardole perked up. "Ooo, recognise that voice. Yes! Nice girl, actress, bit orange. Left me for an AI in a call centre."

"Ouch," Danni replied. "What a bitch. You're much better than some stupid AI."

"What killed the crew of this station?" the Doctor asked the suit before they could dive into Nardole's love life.

"_I am unaware of any recent deaths_," the suit replied, almost cheerfully. It was a little disconcerting considering what they were talking about, but then again that was how computers tended to be. Especially customer service ones.

"What about the oxygen? Where did it all go?"

"_There has never been any oxygen in this station. Oxygen is available for personal use only, at competitive prices_."

The Doctor looked down at Danni. "You said that," he said to her. "That they'd save money with the dead man."

She nodded. "There was a poster, it said that air was expensive. I assume they're charging people for oxygen."

"_Any unlicensed oxygen will be automatically expelled to protect market value._"

"Hang on. Didn't we just fill this place with air?" Bill pointed out.

"Yes, I suppose we did," the Doctor drawled, taking another look around. There were definitely ways that the air could be removed from the room, and quite easily as well.

"Because it said expelled."

As if on cue, an alarm began ringing through. Danni shot over to the Doctor, grabbing his hand. "It's decompressing!" she exclaimed. "We need to move!"

No one needed telling twice and the four ran back through to the repair bay, but were met with the rush of air leaving the station. Everyone grabbed onto something, trying not to be sucked out into the space outside, until Danni could point the screwdriver at the open bulkhead door and close it.

She rushed over the moment they were able to get onto their feet, giving it a sonic to see if it would be possible to reopen it again without setting off another alert system. The TARDIS was stuck on the other side, after all, and it was the safest place they could be until they could work out what was going on.

Nardole appeared at her side. "So," he started.

"If you start telling me what deep shit we're in right now, I'm going to unscrew your head and keep the bolts," she told him. "You know I will do that again."

He reached up to his neck. "That seems a trifle unfair," he replied.

"I know, but so does having to be stuck on the other side of a wall to the TARDIS. We've just got to live with these things." She banged the door once with the flat of her hand. "I don't think we can go back through there," she told the Doctor. "The vacuum…"

He appeared on her other side. "The vacuum won't let you open it," he finished for her and she nodded.

"And if we could, we'd be sucked out into space," Nardole added on and she nodded.

"As I said; deep shit."

The sound of air moving, as if the air conditioning had turned on, was the next worrying thing they all heard. "What's that?" Bill asked.

"Er." The Doctor looked down at Danni, who was staring at the ceiling. She'd work it out soon enough, and so would Nardole, which was a little more concerning. "Nothing to worry about."

"Really?" Bill asked, hopefully.

"Yes, not for several minutes," he clarified, instantly worrying her. "Well, don't stress early, it's a waste of energy."

"Stress about what?" she demanded.

"The air situation," Danni replied. "We're fine, for now."

"_Occupants of repair station, please identify. Occupants of repair station, please identify._"

The voice came from a wall panel, so the Doctor walked over. "Hello there," he replied. "You first."

"_I'm sorry?_"

"Well, all your crewmates are dead. So, either you're extremely lucky or you killed them. Which is it?"

"_This is Drill Chief Tasker. And I haven't killed anyone._" The voice paused. "_Yet. Now who is this?_"

"Doctor, plus three," he replied, keeping everyone else vague for now. "You sent out a distress call. You should be expecting company. Now tell me, what happened to the crew of this station."

"_Hang on, you're in the repair bay, right? Get out of there! Now!_"

"Why?"

"_There are suits in there!_"

"_Doctor!"_

He quickly turned at the frightened cry from his wife. The corpse in the suit had started to move, reaching out them. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back, but she kept her arm straight, trying to use the sonic screwdriver to stop the suit from moving any closer. Instead, it flew out of her hand and into the grasp of the corpse, who squeezed it a bit too hard. The sonic fought back as it broke, frying the suit's electrical circuits and the suit dropped to the floor.

"Oh, I didn't mean for that to happen!" Danni exclaimed as the Doctor walked over. He pulled out the broken screwdriver from the man's hand. It was quite obviously destroyed. "Doctor, I'm sorry, that's not what was supposed to happen."

"It's fine," he replied, although he was a little put out that his screwdriver was broken. He put it in his pocket, next to hers, then poked the spacesuit. He quickly pulled a chip from it and chucked it to Nardole. "Get me some history," he instructed. Nardole, for once, didn't complain and headed off to do just that.

"You okay?" the Doctor asked the other two.

Danni just nodded, looking around for any more danger. "Er, yeah. Just a, just a little freaked, I think," Bill replied. He nodded. He could understand that.

"Try not to breathe so fast," he instructed. She nodded, trying to slow her breathing down as best as she could.

"A single line of instruction was sent to all suits. Deactivate your organic component," Nardole called over.

"'Organic component'? As in people?"

"Wow, killing off your customer base seems a bit extreme, doesn't it?" Danni asked. "I mean, no people, no profit."

This new information had Bill glancing over at the suits currently lining one side of the room. The Doctor was already checking them over, which strangely didn't bring down her anxiety. "Can you fry those ones, too?"

"Possibly," he offered. "But we have another problem. Opening the airlock was the station's plan A. Plan B, filtering out all the oxygen."

"So they can sell it back to us!" Nardole said nervously. The Doctor nodded.

"Capitalism in space. If we want to keep breathing, we have exactly one option." He took hold of Bill and pointed her directly at one of the suits. "Buy the merchandise."

"_Oxygen levels are seriously depleted. Please step on board your Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit. Engage pressure pad to activate customised robing,_" the suit declared, almost as if it was mocking them.

"You said those things were going to kill us!" she exclaimed.

"How is that different from what is happening right now?" Danni retorted. "The ship is trying to kill us already."

"How does this help?" Bill asked her.

"We know that they killed their occupants on specific orders," the Doctor answered instead. "I think these ones are off network for repairs, so they can't receive commands."

"Doctor, if those suits have killed thirty-six people, that means there's thirty-six corpses walking about this station," Nardole spoke up from near the window.

"You know, that really doesn't matter right now," the Doctor said back snarkily, but Danni groaned as she realised where he was standing, and what he was implying.

"Oh, don't say it. Please don't say it," she pleaded.

"I think there's something moving out there," he whimpered. He looked out of the window again, but this time he used a switch on the wall to turn the external lights on. Much to everyone's dismay, he illuminated the many corpses that were slowly making their way back to the base.

The Doctor grabbed Danni's arm, pulling her back and away. "Suits, now!"

"But there's only three!" Bill protested. "There's four of us!"

That was true. The Doctor's first thought was to chuck Nardole out of the way for Danielle, after all he was part robot and hopefully could be saved. His second was that he could give one up himself, but he also knew that Danni would never allow him to do that. He did, for one dark moment, contemplate not letting Bill into one either but that was something he quickly pushed out of the way. He would just have to force Danni into one herself.

"The other suit," she spoke up.

"What about it?" he asked, reaching out to take her hand. It would be a struggle, but he and Nardole could get her in.

"It was working, but it had an error. It was broken too," she explained. "If I can cut it off from the network, that'll be four. Four suits. Four people."

"Yes, of course, excellent idea," he praised. "You get into one of the suits, I'll go hack the system."

She pulled her hand away. "No, I'm the better hacker, I'll do it," she told him. "Plus, you're the smart one. If it doesn't work then they'll need you, not me."

"No," he replied. "I need you to get in the suit, now, Danielle."

"What? So you can be all heroic? Not a chance." She looked at Nardole. "Get him in a suit. That's an order."

She turned and rushed to the doorway. Hating the fact that he was going to let her continue on, but knowing that they'd fight about it until the oxygen was completely depleted, he called to her. "Danielle, wait!" She paused, one hand on the doorway, ready to bolt if he tried to stop her. He took out her sonic screwdriver. "Here, catch!"

She did, hand grasping around it before she even looked at her. The sight of her own sonic screwdriver froze her on the spot. If he had that on him, that meant that he'd gone into Missy's Vault when he'd promised not to. But, more than that, it meant that _he_ knew she'd gone in there and had been stupid enough to leave her screwdriver behind.

She looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes. But the look he shot her in reply had her turning and running off. They could argue later. First, they both needed to be alive.

The Doctor watched her disappear, but shrugged Nardole's hand off when he tried to make the Doctor head to the pressure pads in front of the suits. The quicker he got the suit on, the quicker he could follow and help her get into her own suit. Isn't that what they suggested on planes? Your own oxygen mask first?

He just wouldn't be happy until he could see her alive and well.

_~0~0~0~_

_I just want to thank everyone's continued patience with me. Hopefully I'll be back again soon with the next part :)_


	14. The Suits

Danni knew that, given what was currently happening, running fast and therefore using more oxygen was probably not the best idea. However, she was very eager to get out of one situation – the situation where her husband knew that she had been to see Missy, on her own – and into the other, which was the situation where she wasn't going to suffocate.

Luckily, the creepy dead people trapped in space suits seemed to be outside the spaceship, not inside, so she was able to get to the spare suit without much more than two racing hearts and the absolute dread of having _that_ conversation with the Doctor once they were alive and far away from the killer spaceship.

The suit was still where they had left it, bent down ready to pick up its next load, the spare helmet on the floor where it had popped off. She smirked to herself; even though they were in danger, she could still appreciate a good joke.

"Alright, alright, let's have a think," she muttered to herself. She checked the error code on the suit's display. "Error. What error, exactly? Network error? Is that why you were walking around without a person? Or did the Doctor put you in error mode when he popped your head off?" She pointed her screwdriver at it. "You know, you _could_ be a little more helpful? Like, for example, how do I put you on?"

"_The Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit can be equipped by visiting the designating robing stations._"

She blinked, surprised at the voice. She'd forgotten, for a moment, about the AI and the voice that had discarded Nardole. "Er, thanks," she replied slowly as she looked around. It was quite obvious there was nothing of the sort in the room. "And, er, what if my suit is in front of me and I'm not currently in it?"

"_Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuits are not designed to be removed by their occupants."_

"Well, no, you're in space, that makes sense," Danni agreed. "But, hypothetically, say that you had no occupant," she pointed her screwdriver at the suit, wiping the user from its system very easily, "and I _happen_ to be your new occupant, how would I get in without a robing station?"

"_In event of malfunction, the Ganymede Systems Series Twelve SmartSuit can be applied with the override on the input pad provided."_

Danni, again, nodded to herself. Now, instead of the output screen on its arm, there was a simple numeric keypad. "Excellent. That is very convenient. You really are a smart suit," she praised. "One more question, before I, you know, _jump_ right into you. It says the suit is in error. What is the error?"

"_Unfortunately I cannot diagnose any errors as I do not have access to the diagnostic suite. Please connect the suit to your ship's network and I can investigate the issue for you._"

She beamed. "That will not be necessary," she crowed happily. "Let me just enter that override," she pointed the tip of her screwdriver at the pad, "and we can get down to business."

There was a shimmer in the air as the suit seemingly dematerialised, onto to wrap itself around Danni like some sort of superhero outfit. She hadn't expected it to be so instant, so she yelped in surprise and tried to drop the screwdriver so it wouldn't be encased in the suit. Unfortunately, she was a little too late, and instead it fell down the trouser leg.

"Oh great," she snapped. She shook her leg, where she felt it move. "What the hell am I supposed to do with that? You've trapped my screwdriver in my leg!"

The voice didn't reply and she rolled her eyes. Of course she didn't have a comeback, or a solution to her current problem. Nardole was _so_ much better off without her. "Alright, computer, what is my oxygen like?"

"_At current levels of exertion, you have two thousand two hundred breaths available._"

"Perfect," she muttered, then realised talking out loud was just going to waste the breaths. Instead, she just decided to head back to the Doctor. It felt weird walking, the boots felt rather heavy but as she was walking like normal, she was convinced it was all in her head.

The Doctor met her in the hallway. She had to appreciate the forcefields the suits had instead of a traditional helmet because seeing his face made her feel as relieved as he looked to see her. "You made it," he said with a relieved sigh.

"You sound shocked," she replied. He frowned, which she didn't expect.

"Danielle?"

He said her name like she wasn't there. "Yeah?"

The Doctor turned to Nardole. "Can you hear her?" he asked. Nardole shook his head.

"No, sir."

"Bill?"

"Not a thing."

She sighed heavily. "Great, so no one can hear me," she exclaimed, which was a little redundant because no one could hear her.

"No one can hear you," the Doctor told her, again a little redundantly. "Can you hear us?" She opened her mouth to answer, then stopped and nodded her head. "And you're okay?" Again, she nodded. "Do you have enough oxygen?"

She could feel herself becoming irate with the lack of communication options already. One more nod and he motioned her over. "Just stay with me," he instructed. "Where's you're screwdriver?"

"The suit ate it," she said as she shook her leg pointedly.

His brows furrowed. "Why did you put it in there?" he asked. She shot him her best outraged look, but he waved it away. "No matter, we can do this the old-fashioned way."

"No TARDIS, no screwdriver and in twenty minutes," she said fondly. He, of course, didn't reply and she had to wonder if not having anyone be able to hear her was a bad thing. Sometimes it was nice to have a sounding board that didn't reply.

Still, she also rather did like an audience when she was being witty, or making references. How was she supposed to know he liked what she was saying if he didn't reply?

He knew that she understood the universal sign of hand-holding even without being able to hear her, so he held out his gloved hand and she took it. He took her back into the repair room, where he used the control device on his arm to contact the crew.

"Drill Chief Tasker. Do you read me?"

"_Read you, Doctor. You need to take Corridor Twelve to Processing. Quickly,_" the voice replied urgently. They headed back into the hallway, where they were greeted by a group of the suits coming in from the outside.

"They're here!" the Doctor cried. "Come on! This way! Move!"

"_You look like you're trying to run. Would you like some help with that?_" the suit asked Danni, who rolled her eyes.

"I've been running all of my life, I'm fine," she snapped.

"Can you shut your girlfriend up?" Bill exclaimed, obviously as annoyed with the computer as Danni was.

"Velma! That was her name!" Nardole replied, happy that he'd managed to remember his ex's name.

"Velma?" Danni repeated. "Like they Scooby Doo character? You sure know how to pick them!"

The Doctor sealed them off from the zombies with a smash of a control panel for one of the bulkhead doors, forcing it to look behind them. The suits continued to smash against it, and it wouldn't be long before they found their way through with just sheer brute force. So, they tried the next door, which was also locked against anyone getting through.

The Doctor used his suit's communication device again. "We've hit a sealed door at the end of Corridor Twelve. No way through," he told the people on the other side as they all tried to open it.

No one opened the door. "Oh, come on!" Danni shouted to herself. "There's no need to be rude! We're quite obviously not dead!"

"Tasker, come in," the Doctor tried again, and it took much too long for the people on the other side to open the door. Long enough for the suits to make their way through and approach them at much too fast a pace for them to be real zombies.

The door eventually opened, much to everyone's relief, and they stumbled through. There was a group of people all aiming guns at them.

"Deadlock the door!" one of them instructed to another, who did just that.

"Cutting it a bit fine, weren't we?" the Doctor accused them.

"There was some debate over whether to open it at all," replied one of the men.

"What was there to debate?" Danni snapped. "They're dead, and we are quite obviously not. So much for caring about your fellow man, you jackass!"

He could see her lips move but no sound was coming through the communication system. "Ah, chose one of the dud suits, did you?"

"They're all duds," the Doctor answered for her. "We were in the repair bay, remember? And _you_ were the one who told us to come here!"

Tasker took aim specifically at the Doctor. "And you are?" he asked.

"We got your distress call," the Doctor explained, holding out his physic paper. Danni stared at it, amazed.

"How did you get that out?" she asked, but obviously he couldn't hear her. So she smacked him on the arm. He turned to look at her and she pointed at the physic paper.

"Oh, I remembered to keep hold of it when the suit materialised," he explained. "Try and remember that next time." She smacked him on the arm again and he continued to smile, amused by the little annoyed pout on her face. She could be incredibly adorable when she was annoyed.

"They're from the union," Tasker said, amazed and in a little disbelief.

"The union's a myth," the woman replied. He handed her the psychic paper to take a look herself.

Nardole laughed awkwardly. He hadn't wanted to come on this little adventure, but he also didn't want to be killed by either the zombies outside of the people in front of him. "Yeah," he said. "We're from the mythical union. We're here to help."

Bill, who was getting a lesson on interspace race relations, was suddenly startled by the way her arms reached out in front of her. "Er, that's not me," she told them, her panic rising. "That's not me."

"It's just glitching," both Tasker and Danni said at the same time.

"Ivan, take a look."

As Ivan did just that, helping Bill over to another console, the rest of the crew lowered their guns. They all still seemed rather suspicious of the new people, and Danni couldn't blame them, but she also didn't care.

The Doctor motioned to his wife. "Can he fix her comms as well?" he asked. Tasker shook his head.

"We've only got basic diagnostics. Spare parts are back where you came from, and I don't suppose you want to be going for a quick stroll back there."

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder. "No, I don't suppose we do," he agreed. He then turned to Danni, who just shrugged.

"Just means I can lust over you in peace," she told him. His brows furrowed as he tried to read her lips. "Although, I would always prefer suit off, but you know that."

She wasn't sure if he could read her lips or not- she was sure he had that ability at one point, hadn't he? – so she just raised her hand and did her best to blow him a kiss, which immediately perked him up.

"Right, where's your ship?" Asked Dahh-ren, the blue man who had given Bill quite the shock.

"Parked just off your repair station."

"Then you might as well be on the moon," the woman replied with an attitude that Danni was certain was going to start to piss her off sooner or later. It was always easy to spot the person who was going to give them the most resistance when they were trying to save them. "They're swarming around there now."

"It's just maths now," Tasker explained, obviously _quite_ to optimist. "Oxygen divided by bodies. And none of us have more than three thousand breaths left."

"Then stop wasting them," the Doctor retorted. "I need a map of the base and a full rundown on what happened here."

"Who the hell put you in charge?" he demanded.

"I'm here to save your lives," the Doctor reminded him. "But if you don't want me to, just raise your hand."

No one raised their hand, in fact they all stood in silence as the Doctor stared them down expectantly. Tasker turned to the woman. "Abby, get the man a map."

She gave the Doctor the once over, but then did as she was told, fetching the Doctor what he'd requested. Danni gave her husband a nudge. "That's my Time Lord," she praised. "Scaring everyone into submission."

He nudged her back. "I still can't hear what you're saying," he reminded. "But I imagine you're praising me for my excellent people skills, which compliment my good looks impeccably."

She smiled brightly. "Oh, you think you're so clever," she teased.

He smirked. "I am so clever," he replied and she laughed.

"I _knew_ you could read lips!"

_~0~0~0~_

"_The snow glows white on the mountain tonight, not a footprint to be seen. A kingdom of isolation and it looks like I'm the queen,_" Danni sang under her breath.

"'Deactivate your organic component'," the Doctor repeated, as he was an active participant in the conversation that Danni was listening to. Tasker was going over what had happened, which seemed pretty simple. One moment they were all working, the next most of the crew were dead or dying.

"All the suits got the same command," he explained. "Best guess, someone hacked the network."

"And you survived how?"

"We were off network. You have to be to repair the conveyors," Abby replied.

"It was just dumb luck," Dahh-ren added.

Abby had fetched a map of the ship, which was laid out o a table in front of them. The Doctor had given it a quick look over, and only had a couple of questions. "The measurements, are those in metres?"

"Average breaths. The only unit worth a damn out here," Tasker replied.

"Forty breaths to the dorms, one twenty to the core," Abby explained as she pointed out the various places on the map. "That's where we're headed. It's the safest place."

"Are there more suits inside the base or out?"

Abby looked at him like he had two heads. "Outside is suicide."

"Inside we can move faster than them," Tasker elaborated in a more diplomatic manner. "Outside they have the edge. Which means we're dead."

Bill, who had just reappeared after getting her suit fixed, quickly decided that she definitely wanted to stay inside the spaceship. When being chased by zombie suits was an inevitability, having the upper hand seemed like the best course of action.

"What are you mining? Is it worth stealing?" Nardole asked.

"You think this is a robbery?" Abby asked.

"Well, killing you'd be a good start if it was," the Doctor pointed out. Nardole nodded.

"It's how I'd do it."

Danni pulled a face whilst everyone stared at him, suddenly suspicious. "If you're having to kill everyone to rob them, you're just not doing a very good job," she said factually, to nobody.

"Well, they picked a fine day for it. This is the least productive we've all been for months," Dahh-ren stated.

"Look, we're mining copper ore. You'd need to steal a mountain to make it worth your while," Tasker explained, which was a very valid point.

"Your employers. Any help from them?"

Tasker shook his head. "They're too far away."

"Not that it matters," Ivan, the man who'd fixed Bill's suit spoke up. "Whoever hacked the suits also cut the radio."

"If it was hacked," Danni pointed out. "Do you have any proof that this wasn't an inside job?"

"So your distress call…" the Doctor spoke over her and she scowled. Her question was perfectly valid, why was no one asking it? She couldn't be heard, but the Doctor wasn't an idiot. He must have thought it too, right?

"Was a botch. I boosted a suit radio through the dish," Ivan explained.

"Good job," both Danni and the Doctor praised at the same time.

The Doctor watched out of the corner of his eye as Danni walked away from the table, understandably annoyed that no one could hear what she was saying. He wished he could. He still couldn't quite work out what was happening to the spacesuits, or the space station, and he could have really used her input. All he had gathered so far was that the people left behind also had no clue what was going on.

At least she was able to keep herself busy whilst he did all the boring talking to people parts. She did love a new piece of technology to play with, and she'd made her way straight to the computers lining the room. Perhaps she could find something in them that they all had missed.

An alarm started to sound. It wasn't very loud, and no flashing lights accompanied it which made it feel like it had been put in place by the remaining crew rather than when the space station had been built. Tasker checked the monitor and blinked in surprise at what he saw. "They're fixing the lock."

"Well, then, it's time to go," Abby retorted, which was something everyone agreed with.

"West corridor is free. Forty breaths to the core," Ivan declared, having checked more of the monitors. "Let's move."

Tasker was the first out of the room, and Nardole ushered Bill out in front of him. The Doctor waited for Danni to join his side and they all dashed through the west corridor. Dahh-ren, who was continuously looking back, called forward that the zombies that had fixed the lock were through and on their way, which made it very hard for Bill to keep her breathing down. As did watching poor Tasker die as he opened the door to the core, only to be touched by the zombies waiting for them. An electric surge shot through him as the zombie passed the command to deactivate the organic component, and he joined the force trying to kill the survivors.

"Airlock!" Ivan instructed, and no one argued as he opened one of the bulkhead doors. They all dashed into the small room and he slammed the door shut. Danni peaked out of the small glass window and saw just how many of them were coming at them.

"Helmets on," Ivan instructed as he reached into a small pouch on his hip. The Doctor, Nardole and Abby followed suit.

"Helmet?" Danni asked, a little confused as she turned around. She certainly didn't have a helmet on her.

"Where are we going?" Bill asked.

"Outside."

The Doctor reached into the matching pouch on Danni's hip. The small device he pulled out quickly expanded into a full helmet, one that looked a lot sturdier and designed for being out in the vacuum of space rather than in a pressurised environment. He'd already put his on and so he slipped hers on over her forcefield and twisted it into place.

Even though he knew that he could tell her that she was going to be fine, not hearing the response to tell him that his reassurance had worked made it feel a little redundant. So, instead, he sent her the reassurance across their link, a little tentative but he hoped she appreciated it. He knew that she was hesitant to be so open around people she didn't know, or didn't particularly trust as was the case with Bill, and so he grinned from ear to ear when he felt her shoot her own feeling back in return. It wasn't a thought, but it was nice all the same.

Bill, on the other hand, wasn't having the best time as the two Time Lords ignored their situation for a moment. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"Outside," Nardole replied.

"Well, didn't they say that was a bad idea?" she questioned and he nodded.

"Oh, yes, it's not the best one. However, there is also a wave of killer suits on the other side, so…" He reached into her pouch and activated her helmet. Immediately she looked completely freaked out and she backed away slightly.

"Wait, why, why, why, why do I need that?" she demanded. "What about the air forcefield thing?"

"The forcefield is only for oxygen, there's a vacuum out there that would crush it," he explained as if he was explaining the weather to her, rather than the fact that she was about to go into deep space. "This will keep you safe." He helped her put it on as the Doctor finally let go of his wife. "Just try not to panic. Remember, breathe in, breathe out."

She tried her best to keep her breathing steady, but the helmet was very close to all sides of her head and it already felt like she didn't have enough oxygen. She _really_ hated enclosed spaces. "What happens if I throw up in my helmet?" she asked.

"I'll throw up right next to you," Danni stated, as even the thought made her queasy.

"Colour and smells," Nardole said. Bill's eyes widened slightly.

"Don't throw up in helmet then. Check," she muttered, much to Danni's relief. She really wasn't very good with vomit. Not that anyone was _good_ with it.

As the countdown begun, and all of them began to feel a little safer, Bill's suit began to flash red. Her arms lifted up and her hands took off her helmet. "Somebody stop it!" she cried as her arms began lowering again slowly.

The Doctor turned to her. "Put it back on!" he snapped.

"Doctor, that's not me doing that."

Danni rushed to her husband's side and they both tried to pry the helmet out of the suit's grip, but it wasn't budging at all. Bill was breathing fast and heavy, understandably panicking.

_We need to get her back inside. She's not going to last out there._

At any other time the Doctor would have been almost euphoric at his wife talking in his head once again, but knowing that it was because Bill was about to die squashed any happiness. He turned to Ivan. "Stop the cycle!" he demanded.

"We can't stop it. It's automated."

Both he and Danni took to different parts of her suit, trying desperately to get it to release its grip. The screwdriver that was stuck in her leg was scratching at her skin and no matter how she tried to wiggle, there was absolutely no way that she was going to be able to get it.

"Stupid screwdriver!" she exclaimed angrily to herself. "What is the point of you if all you do is become reliant?!"

She wasn't particularly fond of Bill. Where she used to click with companions almost instantly, all Bill's presence had done was rub her the wrong way and she'd not even tried to get to know her, even for the Doctor's sake. But that didn't mean that she wished the girl harm, she'd just wished that she was anywhere else but on the TARDIS.

"Bill!" the Doctor called, trying to fight through the fog of her panic. "You're about to be exposed to the vacuum of space."

"So don't hold your breath," Nardole instructed firmly, as if it was going to give her any chance at all. They couldn't get back inside, and they couldn't get the helmet back on. She was dead, and she knew it.

The boots engaged with the floor and the countdown reached its end. "What are we going to do?" Bill sobbed, but there was nothing they could do and she knew it. She was going to die. She was going to die.

The last thing she remembered was a deafening silence and a sight of space that she had thought was awesome that now was blindingly bleak.

The Doctor could only stare at his new friend and charge in horror as she began to die in front of him. Her oxygen forcefield was delaying it slightly, but only by seconds rather than minutes or hours. He had failed her by not letting her go back to the TARDIS with Nardole when they had wanted to leave.

His next choice was clear, and devastating. He looked at his wife, who had frozen in front of Bill. He was just so lucky that it wasn't her suit that was malfunctioning. At least he only had to worry about Bill.

"Danni," he stated and she looked at him. "I'm sorry."

Her eyes widened as she instantly knew what he was about to do. Her head shook and she reached out, ready to stop him.

_Theta, no!_

_~0~0~0~_

Bill woke up, a crick in her neck and a headache that she couldn't quite place. She felt very disorientated as she looked around, but nothing felt familiar. She spotted a poster on the wall and let out a little chuckle of derision. _Look after your Smartsuit and it will look after you._ Yeah, right. Her suit had gotten her killed.

She jolted slightly as she came to the startling – although not unwelcome – realisation that she was, in fact, alive and well. Apart from the pain, and the headache. She then jumped again when she spotted the zombies staring back at her from the doorway. She tried to turn and run but she couldn't move.

"Suit?" she whispered urgently. "Suit? Velma?"

The suit burst into life. "_Good morning._" Bill shushed her as she spoke loudly. "_How many I assist?_"

"I can't move."

"_This suit is currently offline for diagnostic purposes._"

Oh, great. She still had absolutely no idea how she had survived, but it looked like it wouldn't matter. If she couldn't move, and there were zombies coming, she was going to be killed anyway.

The footsteps behind her had her turning her head the best she could, wondering if she was going to be attacked from behind. Instead she sighed in absolute relief as she saw Nardole and Ivan approaching her. "Ah, Nardole. Ivan, thank God!"

Nardole smiled at her. "You're awake." He shot Ivan a look. "Told you," he said in a singsong voice.

"Are you okay?" Ivan asked, much too loudly for her liking and she shushed him as well.

"No," she replied. "What happened? I can't move."

Ivan moved around to her front to take a look. "Your suit is set to auto. The Doctor hacked it and walked you out." It was a quick fix, and the moment she could she moved closer to Nardole.

"And you've got oxygen deprivation which is why you feel like you feel," Nardole added. She didn't really care much about how strange her body felt. Instead she nodded down the hallway to where the zombie suits were.

"Have you looked down there?"

"Ah, no, they're fine," Nardole promised her.

She wasn't convinced. "What? Are we safe?" He nodded. "What's stopping them?"

"This whole area's new. It's not in their mapping system," Ivan explained. She looked to Nardole for clarification. Or, rather, for him to confirm they were safe.

"You know, like when your satnav doesn't know a new road," he replied.

"So they can't come here?"

"Not without a floor plan."

Now she was starting to feel slightly safe once again, she noticed that there were two people missing that was she was expecting to see. "What happened to the Doctor? I thought I saw him…"

"Yeah," Nardole cut her off before she could continue. His voice went distinctly serious and she didn't like the sound of it at all. "The Doctor took you to safety. He gave you his helmet."

Her heart dropped painfully. "He died?"

Ivan shook his head. "He should have done. I don't know how he survived."

Nardole continued to look at her kindly, like he was going to explain something that was going to be horrid. She wasn't wrong. "Listen, about the Doctor. He walked in a vacuum for far too long," he explained kindly. He held up his hands as he saw her start to panic again. "He's mostly okay but, he paid a price."

"What do you mean?" she asked. What had he done? What had happened?

Nardole decided against explaining it to her, knowing what was waiting at the end of the hallway when they walked down. "He's in Section Twelve," he explained softly before leading her down the hallway towards the section where he was waiting. She eagerly followed, hoping to see her friend and teacher was alive and well at the end.

Then Nardole stopped and turned to her at the doorway into the section. "Before we go in," he said softly. "There's something you should be aware of."

"Oh my god, he's in a coma, isn't he?" she asked. She was worried, and panicking, and she just wanted to see the Doctor. What was he thinking, giving up his helmet for her? If he wasn't dead, it had to be something worse, and that was all her fault, wasn't it?

"No, it's not that," Nardole replied quickly to try and reassure her. It didn't help much. "You see, the Doctor and Danni, they're very old. And for the longest time all they have had is each other."

Bill frowned. That wasn't where she had thought he was going with that. "Yeah, so?"

"Well, so, Danni had a lot of things happen to her in that time. She's not had an easy live, and so, well," he glanced down the hallway. "Just-Just don't take it personally, and don't get too close to the Doctor, okay?"

"Okay…" Bill drawled, confused.

The section was still under construction and Nardole lifted the plastic out of the way to let her in. She stepped in and saw the Doctor sat down with Dahh-Ren and Danni near one of the windows. Danni held the Doctor's hand in hers, and was the only one of the two to look around at the sound of the plastic rustling.

She was immediately on her feet and Bill froze in her step. She still couldn't hear anything the other woman was saying but the pure fury on her face was being aimed straight at her. She quickly held her hands up in surrender as Danni's mouth moved with angry words, before she immediately turned her glare onto Nardole.

"_What the hell do you think you're doing?"_

He looked almost queasy, which Bill could understand. "Er, Bill- Bill's awake," he said to her and the Doctor, a little redundantly to Danni.

Bill took a step forward towards the other Time Lord. "Doctor?" she asked unsurely.

Danni was immediately in front of her, blocking off her view completely. "No," she snapped into the silence that was listening. "You're not going anywhere near him."

"Danielle," the Doctor called over in warning, as if he knew what she was doing. He stood up as well and turned around. Bill gasped at the sight of his milky white eyes. The damage Nardole had mentioned was immediately apparent.

"You're blind," she whispered, horrified.

The Doctor chuckled slightly. Everyone was stating the obvious around him again today. "I am? Well, that explains the bruised shins."

She took a step to hug him, but Danni appeared between them again. This time, though, she put both hands on Bill and shoved her backwards. She didn't fall due to the suit, but she wobbled enough that it kept the distance between her and the Doctor as she stopped moving.

"I said _stay away_," Danni snarled. "Take another step towards him and I'll rip you out of that suit."

"What was that for?" she asked as Nardole helped her right again.

"Yeah, I did warn you," he said matter-of-factly. "She's just a little upset, that's all."

"A little upset?" Danni screeched. "I'll show you a little upset, you jumped up, tin-can…"

"Danielle," the Doctor said again, fumbling slightly as he reached out to rest a hand on her arm. She pulled back just slightly, but didn't take her eyes off Bill, who could clearly see that she was being considered a threat.

He wished he could see her, but all he had was a distinct lack of sight and the knowledge that she had blocked any chance he had of communicating with her telepathically. She had the moment they had made it back inside the spaceship, when she realised that he wasn't going to die. It was her fear controlling her and he wished he could help her, he wished he could hold her properly, he wished he could see her face, or hear her voice. But she was too closed off and she wasn't going to calm down until she could see that he was safe.

He could never let her know that he couldn't be fixed. "It's only temporary," he reassured them all.

"Really?" Bill asked.

"Yeah. Once we get back to the TARDIS," he replied. "I've got stuff in there that'll cure anything. Failing that, I think I've got some spare eyes somewhere. They're from a lizard, but I'm sure they'll fit."

Danni knew that he was just trying to make light of the situation because he was scared, and because they were all scared too. He was trying to keep everything light and calm so that he could have space to think of a way to save them all. It infuriated her that he thought that he could just talk his way out of what he had done, and how being blind might have been the best outcome but he could have _died_ and he had been happy to do so.

She couldn't stand being near anyone, her instinct to run away growing and she turned and stormed off. "Oh, er, sir, she's gone. I think she just needed some space."

"Suit, can you mute the comms?" she asked. She didn't want to hear any of them.

She leant on the wall and watched the group. She hated the fact that he would risk himself for someone he barely knew, and she hated that it was just so distinctly him to do so. She hated the fact that he had always been like that, and that she wouldn't want him to change, but she also desperately wished that he was just a bit more careful.

She hated the fact that trying to redeem Missy, at the expense of her own safety, just to prove that anyone can be redeemed was also something the Doctor would do for her. She hated that as much as she wanted him to succeed, both of them knew that it was an exercise doomed to fail and he was going to realise that he'd married a monster. She was always going to be a monster.

She watched him walk away and into some of the debris, unable to see where he was going and refusing anyone's help. He was probably hoping he was walking in her direction and she was rather glad he wasn't.

"When we get back, when this is all over, you're going to ask me why I was with Missy and didn't tell you," she stated into the nothing that was listening. "And we're going to argue about it and it's going to go nowhere. The argument never goes anywhere."

She sighed, leaning back against the wall the best she could in the stupid spacesuit. "And I know you'd understand, and you'd want to storm in like the white knight you are and save me from the evil monster that contacted me. But today just showed me that I can't tell you. I can't show you a damn thing, because you'll just get yourself killed. I can't… I won't let them take another moment from us again."

Bill followed her husband and she felt the flare of protection that had made her shove Bill away, but this time she didn't follow it. "And when we get back, and after we argue, and we apologise and this is all over, I'm going to contact the Master back. I'm going to talk to him and fall under his spell yet again, and I can only hope you see it before it's too late. And I hope, more than anything, you can be that white knight and save me. Because I miss that. I miss you saving me, I miss not being afraid."

She swallowed back her tears. "And I'm only saying that because you can't hear me. Don't think I would ever actually say this to your face. Your ego is big enough as it is."

As she had muted her communications, she had no warning when Abby raised her gun and pointed it at the Doctor. However, she did see it, and the protectiveness that had flared up at the sight of Bill sparked back into life.

"Unmute," she instructed her suit as she moved as fast as the suit would allow her, right in front of the barrel. With a swift smack the gun fell out of Abby's hand and she was pointing it right back in her face.

"Try it," she said in warning.

"Oh, sir!" Nardole exclaimed, sounding incredibly worried. "She's got a gun!"

"Who does?" he demanded.

"That was like something out of a movie," Bill said, slightly in disbelief. Danni had appeared almost at superspeed, and whilst she didn't particularly feel safe with the woman who was angry at her having a gun in her hand, she was rather impressed.

"Oh," the Doctor replied softly. "Danielle, drop the gun."

Danni didn't drop the gun. "Look, I don't care if you live or die," she told Abby. "I don't care that the company you work for is trying to kill you all. I know you can't hear me, but you threaten him again and I'll kill you."

She didn't know when she'd realised that the deaths were at the hands of company that owned the spaceship, but she didn't really have time to care, or to share that little piece of information. She just had to keep the Doctor safe, not just from himself it would seem but from everyone else.

She felt the uncertain hands of her husband reach out and grab her arm, giving her a few testing squeezes before trying to lower her arm. She did, although she didn't let go of the gun. "It's okay, it's okay," he said to her calmly. "She just doesn't do very well when people are threatening me, you'll have to forgive her for your rudeness."

"Who the hell are you?" Abby demanded again.

"I'm the Doctor," he told her. "Until the next rescue ship comes, no one is going to help you but us. If you really want to survive, we all need to calm down."

Again, he was aiming it at everyone, including Danni, who hadn't taken her eyes off Abby. She had known that her bad attitude would just get in the way. Every time, on every adventure, it was always the humans that go in the way.

Dahh-Ren called out in pain and fear, and they all turned to see him being killed by a suit. In their arguing, no one had been paying attention and somehow they had found their way into the section.

Danni quickly fired at them, taking a couple out. "We have to move!"

"We have to move!" Ivan echoed.

"Head for the reactor core! Run!" Abby instructed as Dahh-Ren joined the walking dead.

Danni shoved her gun back at her before helping Nardole grab the Doctor to usher him along.

"What's happening?" he asked.

"Guess," Nardole retorted.

"Danielle?" he called. "Is that her? I'm not leaving her behind."

She gave his arm a squeeze to reassure him. "I'm here," she said. "All ready to gloat in your face when you realise that you've missed the biggest clues of them all."


	15. The Many Secrets

The Doctor was stupid. He always claimed to be, but sometimes it even surprised him and he hated being surprised by his own stupidity. It was even worse than when he was surprised by other peoples. It came out of nowhere and hit him in the face, and if he was perfectly honest, he really didn't need yet another injury.

The company was killing the people. The orders were coming straight from the source, and there hadn't been anyone hacking the system. They had just wanted to replace the humans that were being so inefficient with a new lot to make more money, and it was the best way that they could do it. All to save a little oxygen. All to save a little _money_. With no regard for life because, as it always did, it all came down to that bottom line. It was disgusting, and much too predictable for him to take _this_ long at realising it.

Of course, coming to _that_ realisation when he had to leave Bill to die, scared and alone, wasn't his finest hour, but he could have been forgiven for not working at full capacity. He had been deprived of oxygen, blinded, all without a sonic screwdriver or the TARDIS. Some things just took a little time to work out.

Bill called after them, and he wished more than anything he could take hold of Danni's hand and feel her reassurance. Instead he just grasped at her through the suit's fabric and she did the same to him. No matter how angry she was at him, and how angry she pretended to be at Bill for the damage caused, he knew she didn't mean it. He knew his fear came out in manic plans that he didn't quite think through. Her world had shrunk so much since losing Clara that it came out in anger. She was just angry she couldn't do anything about it.

The door to the reactor room was closed, keeping the suits temporarily out, which was all the Doctor needed. "Nardole, keep an eye on Danielle," he instructed. "I have work to do."

He didn't need to be able to see to know that Nardole immediately stepped towards his wife, and he didn't need to be able to hear her to know that she was loudly protesting the fact that she needed to be looked after. However, although he complained about the potato man/robot a lot, the one thing he could do was trust him to look after his wife no matter what and he needed to focus on the next part of his plan instead of her safety.

Alright, instead of _wholly _focusing on her safety but he also didn't have time to worry about the specifics. The suits wouldn't leave them alive for long so he stumbled his way to the control panel and immediately began to pull it apart.

"What are you doing?" Danni asked the air as she watched him work. She knew him well enough and had seen him work in plenty of dire situations to know when he had a plan and when he was winging it. As he was pulling wires and circuitry out of the console, she knew that it was the former.

Nardole grabbed her arm before she could walk over to his side. "Ma'am, you have to stay here."

She looked at him, annoyed. "Says who?" she snapped.

"I have to keep an eye on you," he reminded. "It's for your safety."

"Well, then, keep an eye on me while I safely stand _over there_," she retorted and walked over closer to watch him work. He would pull wires out and, after giving them a quick feel though his gloves, would chuck them to the side of pile them on top of the console. "You know, I wish you would give me a running commentary," she told him. "Because it looks really interesting, especially as we're about to die."

Nardole, who quickly joined her at her side like a shadow, frowned as the Doctor seemed to frantically work. "Doctor, this isn't going to work," he told the older Time Lord.

"Isn't it?" the Doctor replied, slightly sarcastically. "Why, what do you think I'm doing?"

"Electrolysis," he replied. "Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen."

"Oh, that's clever. I wish I could see me doing that." He fumbled around the hole he'd created in the console, looking for the correct wires. He had to admit, it was rather interesting working from just feel alone. It would have been better if it hadn't been in such dire situations, but he worked his best when he was in a hurry.

Danni shook her head. "No, that's not it," she corrected Nardole. "I don't know what he _is_ doing, though."

"Doctor, that water is cooling the nuclear core," Nardole continued as the Doctor walked into him. He continued to do so until Nardole shifted out of his way. "We'd enjoy five minutes of oxygen before the whole thing overheated and blew."

"Yes, five whole minutes!" the Doctor agreed enthusiastically as he felt his way to the middle, where the core stood. He tapped on the side until he found the controls for that as well. "We could boil the hell out of an egg! Stop being such a quitter!"

Nardole shot a look at Danni, looking for her help. She just shrugged and jabbed her oxygen shield to remind him that she couldn't exactly chime in with an answer. Not that she would, she was sure the Doctor was doing something clever and she wasn't about to interrupt that.

He realised he was getting no help from her, so he turned back to the Time Lord, who was still working away frantically. "Doctor, it wasn't your fault. You couldn't have saved her!"

"You know what's wrong with this universe? Believe me, I've looked into it. Everyone says it's not their fault. Well, yes, it is." He stopped, trying to face Nardole but he couldn't. " All of it. It's all your fault. So, what are you going to do about it?"

"Make it right," Danni interjected.

"There's nothing we can do! She's dead!" Nardole exclaimed. The Doctor paused and shot a look in what he hoped was Nardole's general direction.

"She's no more dead than you are," he corrected. "Than I am. Than everyone on this station is." He held his hands up. "Get me to a keyboard."

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm not trying to make oxygen. Keyboard! Now, please!" Nardole rolled his eyes but, yet again, did as he was told and walked him to a keyboard. He began typing almost immediately and the readout above him began to change.

Ivan, who was keeping careful eye on the suits that were trying to break their way into the room, glanced over at them. "You think you have a plan."

"We've got exactly one plan left."

Danni watched her husband continue to work. She wasn't sure what, exactly, he was trying to do but she could tell by his tone that his plan was rather… well, deadly in nature. Having survived through so much she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about that, and it was after a little back and forth between him and the remaining crew members of the space station, he finally explained what he meant.

"The nice thing about life is, however bad it gets, there's always one last option available." He moved away from the keyboard, fumbling to press some of the controls near him. The display changed and the readouts were replaced by images of five bodies appeared. "Dying well."

"No," Abby declared before rushing over to her own computer. "No!"

"What is it?" Ivan demanded.

"Our life signs. He's wired them to the coolant system. If we die, it vents."

"When the suits kill us - and they are going to kill us - the core will blow and the whole station will be destroyed," he explained as he walked away from the controls and into the room. "One very big boom," the Doctor explained.

For a moment, Danni felt rather shocked at his plan, before the leaps he'd made obviously made a lot of sense. If the conclusion she had come to was true, and that the company was killing the crew and not a hacker or a malfunction, the best way to show how pissed everyone was would be to destroy their money-making machine. She hadn't expected the Doctor to come up with the same, rather finite, reason. He would always try and save as many people as he could, it was one of the wonderful traits that she had always loved. She didn't expect to him act like, well, like her.

"Is that really the best you've got? Revenge?" Nardole shouted angrily.

"Not just revenge. It's revenge as bright as the sun. It's revenge you can see across galaxies!" He smirked. "Not bad for a blind man."

Danni walked over, grabbing his hand and holding it tightly. He started but, with a nudge of her head, she showed him that it was her and not something to be concerned about.

_I do wish we could talk before we die, _she said, opening her mind up for just a moment.

_Don't you worry, my Pet. I'll hear your wonderful voice yet._

He felt and sounded confident to her, which was even more confusing as he convinced everyone to open the doors and let the suits in. Surely, if they were all going to die and taking off the helmets would mean that they could neither talk nor be heard, she could never talk to him again.

Bill was the first suit in, arms outstretched ready to deactivate all of the organic parts within the room. The Doctor pointed out how very much it felt like Fate to have Bill come in first. Danni felt rather bad that she had been a little mean to Bill, after all it wasn't her fault that the Doctor had chosen to give up his helmet for her.

"Hello, suits," the Doctor greeted jovially. "Our deaths will be brave and brilliant and unafraid. But above all, suits, our deaths will be—" he grinned, "-_expensive_!"

The suits stopped dead in their tracks, as if they were actually listening to him. Danni, on the other hand, started to laugh so hard that she had to bend her knees to keep her balance. How had she not worked that out? She blamed it on the lack of oxygen and the near-death experience.

The Doctor let go of her hand when he realised that she had caught up with his thinking. He walked around the suits, changing the readouts on their arms so they could see exactly what he had done. "Check your readings. We die, your precious station dies. The whole thing will blow. The company will make the biggest loss in its history. A moment ago, we were too expensive to live. Now we're more expensive dead."

"Oh, you think you're so clever," Danni told him.

"I know I am," the Doctor replied, as if he could hear in. Most likely he had just assumed what she had said, but she wouldn't put it past him to have heard everything she had been saying all along. "Welcome to the rest of your lives."

"But you said that we were going to die," Abby protested, which was definitely a weird thing to protest.

"Ah. Technically, I said you were as dead as Bill. Probably should've mentioned. Bill's not dead." He reached up to Bill's helmet and quickly reactivated her oxygen. With a big gulp of breath, she came back to life. "I saw earlier her suit battery was too low. Not enough for a lethal dose. I know what it takes to kill someone."

"Doctor?" she asked as the other suits walked around, giving up their oxygen to the people who were still alive.

"Yeah?"

The young woman beamed. "I think I'm alive."

"Yep. You do seem to be under that impression."

She chucked her arms around him and it took all of Danni's strength not to push her off him. It was unreasonable, and unfounded, but the flare of protection she felt had her hands clenching by her sides.

Nardole, seemingly sensing her discomfort, walked to her side. "Cuddle?" he offered.

She scowled at him. "Piss off."

_~0~0~0~_

Bill had never been able to not watch what was going on around her and admire the new and exciting. Even when she was about to suffocate, crying and about to die, she still couldn't help but think about the suit she was stood in, or the ones that were bringing the dead people ever-closer to her. How they held her up and how the mechanisms worked. She might not have understood it, but mixed in with the horror and the despair was that little hint of curiosity that she figured was why the Doctor had picked her to travel with them in the first place.

And, now they were safe and sound in the TARDIS, she couldn't help but watch the Danni and the Doctor. The Doctor, who was sat down and Danni who was stood in front of him, a small device in her hand that apparently would restore his vision. Again, she didn't understand how it worked but the fact that it did was actually a little bit brilliant.

"Will you- Stop moving your eyes around," Danni scolded the Doctor lightly. "Do you want to see or not?"

"I'm not doing anything," the Doctor grumbled back. She still didn't quite understand them. Danni always seemed annoyed at him. She always seemed annoyed at everything.

Slowly, but surely, the milkiness to the Doctor's eyes faded and soon he was staring up at his wife again. A very fond, very happy, very gentle smile spread across his face. "There you are," he whispered softly.

Danni lowered the device. Her shoulders sagged and all of the worry left her. "You can see?" she pressed, just to make sure.

He reached out, cupping the back of her head, threading his fingers in her hair. "The only thing I want to see," he replied, pulling her down. He didn't kiss her, instead he pressed her forehead against his and Bill couldn't help but feel like that was more intimate than the kiss would be. Danni dropped her device to the floor, letting it clatter, as she reached out and held onto the Doctor.

"You're such an idiot," she scolded and the Doctor chuckled.

"I am," he agreed. "A great, big, ancient idiot. I can't tell you how much I missed you face."

"It's not that great," she replied. "Well, no, actually, it's pretty fantastic. I'd miss it too."

He pulled back slightly. "You're supposed to say you'd miss mine," he pointed out.

"That's a given," she replied. She let go of the top of his legs to cup his face with both hands. "I missed your eyes," she said softly. She leant forward and they shared a soft kiss that had Bill changing her mind. That was more intimate. And a little weird, considering how out-of-character it felt for Danni. Still, it was incredibly sweet. She smiled at them. They had shown her some wonderful sights, and some awful sights, and learning about how they'd spent their life she was glad that they had each other. Even if she didn't really understand it.

There it was again. Liking things even though she didn't understand them. Smiling instead of frowning. Maybe the Doctor had been onto something.

She cleared her throat. "Uh, guys, we've got company, remember?" she said pointedly.

"Well they can get their own snog boxes," Danni retorted sharply. "This one's ours."

"I don't think that is the issue, here," Bill replied. Danni shot her a look but, as she wasn't very comfortable with large displays of affection in front of other people, she pushed off the floor in front of him to let him up. As he did, he handed her the sonic screwdriver she had been able to retrieve out of her suit once they'd made it to the TARDIS. She put it in her pocket.

He did a very good job of turning to the survivors of the space station, so much so that he could immediately tell that no one thought anything was wrong with him at all.

"Thank you, Doctor," Abby said both humbly and sincerely. "For all that you've done. I'm sorry that I didn't have more faith in your methods."

"Ah, don't mention it," he dismissed, because having faith in his methods was something that even he didn't have. "Now, I can set you down on a hub outside of corporate control, or anywhere, really. The universe is your crustacean."

Abby looked at Ivan, who nodded back. "Head office. We've got a complaint to make."

He grinned and, with touch alone, set the TARDIS into flight. His mind was racing, as the realisation that his eyesight wasn't coming back hit him at full force. "Promise me you'll be loud?"

Abby nodded and Danni suddenly rather liked her. "Promise."

_~0~0~0~_

Bill was in good spirits when she left the office, but then again that was to be expected considering she had almost died but then had not. Danni watched her leave from by the TARDIS, where she leant against it silently. Nardole looked ready to tell them off as the door shut behind the human, which he had all of the right to considering what had happened, but Danni really wasn't in the mood for it.

"Never again," Nardole started.

"Nardole," Danni started. "Go check on the Vault. Take your time."

"I'm not going anywhere," he retorted. "We were _so_ close to not making it back…"

"Go check on the Vault," the Doctor cut off. "Now."

"And why should I, when you obviously…."

"Because, I fear, Danielle and I are about to get into an argument."

"I'll just go check on the Vault," he declared before scuttling off out of the door, shutting it behind him. The Doctor had slipped on his sonic sunglasses when they'd left the TARDIS, and he didn't take them off when he looked over at where she was.

"You went to see Missy," he said.

"You almost died," Danni retorted.

"And you left your sonic screwdriver there," he continued. "Do you have any idea what could have happened if she…"

Danni stepped forward. "_You almost died!"_ she repeated pointedly. "You took your helmet off in the middle of space and, for some reason, thought that was okay!"

"Why were you in there?"

He watched her straighten, as if ready for a fight, then reluctantly fall back as she realised that he wasn't going to let her change the subject with how he'd saved Bill. She knew that he wouldn't have done anything differently, and arguing wouldn't change it the next time anyone was in danger and he could save them.

"I-I got an email. I thought it was from her, and I was angry because I thought she'd managed to get internet access," she explained. "I was wrong, it was just some spam. I overreacted."

The Doctor was sat at his desk, and leant forward towards her. "Why didn't you say anything?" he asked. "I would have helped."

"_Because_!" she retorted but she couldn't tell him the reason she hadn't mentioned it. There was a little voice in her head scolding her for being so stupid, but there was another that just didn't want him to know. She hated that part, but it was the part that couldn't help but listen to. "Because I was scared, and then angry, and then embarrassed." She shuffled on the spot. "I didn't want to drag you into my embarrassment. It's embarrassing."

"As embarrassment usually is," he pointed out. He sighed heavily and shifted in his seat. "Did she break your laptop?"

"What?" she asked. "No, of course not. That was just me being clumsy. I said I'd fix it at some point."

"Are you sure? Because you did leave your sonic screwdriver in there with her, and then didn't mention that either."

She shuffled from side to side slightly, and she hoped that he'd take her discomfort at more embarrassment. "Yeah, she startled me," she muttered. "It was stupid. I hate being in there with her so much. She's only trapped because she thinks it will help her to stay put. The moment she doesn't think that, she'll be gone and if she had the sonic screwdriver it would have helped her so much more."

He knew now wasn't the moment to bring up Missy's rehabilitation, or how good she had been and not used the screwdriver once. The fact that Danni wasn't putting up a fight to tell him about what had happened with Missy, even though she was still so guarded about it, was steps enough that he let it drop. "Are you sure that was all that happened?"

"Yeah, it was just a stupid email," she promised. And, unfortunately for both of them, the Doctor couldn't see that she was lying. "I'm fine now." She walked over to him and he let her sit on his knee. "I promise."

He held onto her tightly as she kissed him, wishing he could see her as well as feel her. "What about you?" she asked. "How are you feeling, now?" She reached up and stroked her hand though his hair to move it from his face. "The glasses haven't been out for a while."

"Everything is still a bit bright; you know how regaining your vision is," he dismissed. She didn't, and told him so. "I'll be right as rain in no time."

She pressed another kiss against his lips. "I'm going to have a shower then maybe, finally head to bed. Are you coming?"

"That depends," he purred, leaning forward to kiss her again. "Are you planning on sleeping?"

"Yes, I am," she told him with a chuckle. He pulled a face and she laughed outright. She didn't move, though, and there was a silence between the before she took his glasses off so she could see his eyes. "Please don't do that again," she whispered.

"I promise, my Pet," he replied. He wished he could see her face, but luckily when he leant forward to rest his forehead against hers again, she met him and he didn't need to find his way. "I'm sorry I worried you."

"I'm sorry I worried you too."

He nudged her off his lap and she handed his sunglasses back. "Go on, go waste some time with that whole sleeping thing," he dismissed.

She shot him a smile. "Love you."

"Love you too," he replied and he waited until he heard her enter the TARDIS before his happiness dropped.

He had no idea what to do. He knew he'd done a good job convincing everyone that he could still see, but now he had to keep up the charade until he could figure out a better fix for it than just using his sonic sunglasses to read what was happening around him.

It wasn't even the worst thing that could have happened. Plenty of people had varying degrees of vision, it was just that he'd had sight for… well, too many years to count. There was an adjustment period he needed that he didn't have the luxury of affording. If Danielle found out that his actions had caused more permanent damage than he'd let on, it would reverse a lot of the progress she had made to become more comfortable in her own life. She needed him to be a stable force, not someone who was unpredictable and constantly got themselves hurt. She needed stability from him. He needed to look after her.

And then there was Missy. He was so _sure_ that he could show her how to be good, teach her how to think until it became second nature and she stopped being a threat to the universe. But she wasn't there, yet. The moment she found out he had anything that she could perceive as a weakness she would exploit it in two heartbeats. How was he supposed to keep his vow and watch over her for a thousand years, teach her to be good and keep her away from his wife before he'd either managed to fix the damage or found a way that no one could perceive it as a weakness?

Somehow, Nardole reappearing didn't surprise him, however the fact that he now had a yo-yo did. He didn't remember taking it out, although it was rather calming and perhaps would help him sort through his thoughts.

"We were_ so_ close to not making it back," Nardole told him, and he realised that he hadn't quite gotten out of the telling off from him either. "Then what happens to the vault? You know what's at stake here."

"Stop talking," the Doctor snapped.

"What if you got killed out there, huh? What happens to your precious Earth then? To Danielle? You need to be here, and you need to be ready if that door ever opens," he continued anyway and the Doctor's frustration flared. "Look at me."

"I can't."

"What if you came back injured or sick? You really think our friend down there won't know that? Won't sense it? Look at me!"

"Nardole, I can't. I really can't!" he declared before standing up and whipping off his sunglasses for dramatic effect. "I can't look at anything ever again. I'm still blind."

The silence that followed was rather nice, and if he had known that losing his eyesight was all it would take to shut him up, he seriously might have considered it sooner. "But Danielle…"

"I know."

"Does she…"

"No," he cut in and he pointed in the direction his glasses told him to. "And you are not to, under any circumstances, tell her. Do you understand?"

"Sir, I can't keep this from her. _You_ can't keep this from her. My orders are very clear."

"Your orders are to look after her, yes?" the Doctor asked. "Tell me something; what would happen if Missy, at this moment, found out that I was blind? Do you think she would be receptive? Sympathetic? Or do you think she would use it to her advantage? Do you think that door would stay closed? Weren't you just telling me off for that exact reason?" the Doctor continued.

"Yes, sir."

"So we're all in agreement," he declared. "Now, tell me this; if we are both frightfully concerned about what would happen if knowledge of this got out, how do you think that will make Danni feel? How do you think it will make her _act?_"

Nardole glanced at the TARDIS, where he guessed Danielle was because otherwise they wouldn't have been having the conversation in the first place. "Reckless, terrified, and without thought," he said.

"Exactly. She went storming into that vault on the back of a spam email alone. What do you think will happen if she finds out that I'm compromised?"

"You're scared that she might get hurt?"

"No, I'm scared that she will get _herself_ hurt," the Doctor corrected. "She is always looking for some way that this is going to fall down around us. Poking at every little bit of uncertainty to the point we're on a space station with no oxygen, all because she's running away. I'm not scared she will get hurt. I'm terrified she will try and fix the problem by running straight into the mouth of the monster."

_~0~0~0~_

The shower had been very warm, and very relaxing, and Danni always felt better after having one. She was still rather wary of baths – that was probably something she was never really going to get past – but a good shower could wash all of the day's grime away and set her on a good path for tomorrow.

Of course, sometimes there was something going on that couldn't just be washed down the drain. Sometimes there was a mad man waiting at the end of an email chain, who you couldn't washed away with some shampoo and a nice smelling shower gel. Sometimes he would just be waiting, and no matter what you did, or who you hid it from, there was no getting away from him.

She sat down on the bed and looked at the laptop that had been placed at the bottom corner. The TARDIS had already replaced her broken one – which she _would_ fix – which Danni found very surprising. She had been convinced that the TARDIS wouldn't have been on her side. Perhaps the blue box knew something she didn't.

She opened the laptop and was immediately greeted with the background image of her and the Doctor together, wrapped in a hug. It was one of the few pictures of the two of them in their current bodies because neither of them were particularly into picture taking this time around.

She looked up at the ceiling. "Bit on the nose, isn't it?" she said. "I know I should tell him. I _should_ tell him." She looked back at the picture again. "I really should tell him."

Still, she opened her emails and saw that he hadn't replied since he'd sent the selfie. She opened it up and almost smiled at the sight. Of course the Master would send selfies instead of just explaining who he was. It was so typically him that it didn't even make her angry.

She hovered for a while, hesitating and debating if what she was doing was right… no, that wasn't quite correct. She knew that what she was doing wasn't right at all. In fact, it all felt very wrong and instead of trying to work out if she should do it, instead she was trying to work up the nerve to shut the laptop lid and go get her husband.

She sighed; this was going to end badly. She could _feel_ it.

_What do you want?_

It was a short sentence, but her stomach fluttered the moment she clicked send. She leant back against the headrest, staring intently to see how quickly he would reply, but still managed to jump when the email came in.

_Yes, I am alive. Thanks for asking. _She glared as she felt the sarcasm from the other side of the screen. _As much as I hate to admit this, I need your help._

She frowned. _Her_ help? What for? Why could he be contacting her for help? Why _her_?

_What did you do now?_

She glanced at the door as the next email came it, almost willing the Doctor to catch her in the act. Instead, only the Master replied.

_I may have gotten myself into quite a bit of trouble. It's all a big misunderstanding._

She snorted. _"Yeah, right,_" she muttered out loud before replying.

_And what could I possibly do about it?_

His reply startled her into silence.

_Steal your husband's TARDIS and come save me._

_~0~0~0~_

_Just a short one today, my peeps. I hope it's okay :)_

_Reviews!_

_**Lady Avotil** \- Your review was an absolute delight to read! Thank you so much for spending so much time writing it. Also, I am always up for people gushing over Danni and the Master's relationship. I've been looking forward to being able to write this series for SO LONG purely because of these two. I hope I don't disappoint :D_

_**Psst** \- Yeah, this Danni is a little bit more abrasive. Hopefully she'll calm down._

_**Daydreamerxx** \- I would say that it's because she knows it is inevitable. The Master has always had this hold on her, that already he is already getting her to keep secrets from the Doctor, and all they have done is exchange a couple emails. She doesn't want the Doctor to find out because she is worried that something will happen to him, but she also knows that if he doesn't notice then something will happen to her. She's basically a mess of confusion and the Master is very good at playing her like that._

_**HannahHPandDWfanJones** \- Thank you very much, sweetie!_

_**Guest** \- And another one :P_

_**bored411** \- I'm sure this chapter answered some of your questions, but as always probably not as many as you'd like :P_


	16. The Haereticum

Danni didn't do much for the longest time. She just stared at the message like she couldn't quite comprehend the words. It was only a single sentence, and the words weren't particularly difficult, but for some reason her brain couldn't quite process what he was saying.

_Steal your husband's TARDIS and come save me_.

The fact that he was even asking proved that he was in bigger trouble than perhaps she had first read into, but also the fact that he wanted her to steal the TARDIS and not tell the Doctor told her it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened to him. Missy may have been more inclined to listen to the Doctor, but he definitely was not.

She wasn't sure if she appreciated how a single line in an email had her thinking over a man who hadn't exactly treated her well like he was an old friend. However, as she looked up at the selfie he'd sent her, she still couldn't help but smile at the sight.

When she had been trapped with Missy she'd had to learn how to survive. Checking for doors in the walls was one way that she had done so, as Missy would trap her in virtual worlds often with only a single door as a failsafe to escape. It was one that she didn't use very often anymore, but sometimes she found herself checking for them. Another was in her dreams. Missy somehow always knew when she was dreaming about the Doctor, but she never really minded if she was dreaming about her previous body. Danni had always assumed that as long as she was dreaming about any Master then Missy thought she was winning. So Danni had created a man in her head, with his face and his mannerisms, who had become a comfort to her. A friend.

The sight of the selfie proved just how bad of a coping mechanism that had been, because she was really glad that he was still alive somewhere, but also knew that it was a terrible thing for him to be loose in the universe. Especially if he was seeking her out directly.

_No, I won't do that_.

She typed the reply but didn't immediately click send, which again was a terrible sign. She deleted the simple sentence and tried again.

_No, I'm not stealing a TARDIS and bringing them you. That's a terrible idea_.

She didn't know why she couldn't send the replies. They were what she wanted to say to him, after all. She wasn't about to take the TARDIS and fly it to him. Last time he'd managed to get his hands on a TARDIS he'd created a paradox machine. She might have been stupid, but she wasn't _that_ stupid.

_She's my TARDIS too. I can't steal what is mine._

She closed her eyes after she clicked send. It was the truest thing she could bring herself to reply to him. After all, whilst the TARDIS was technically the Doctor's, they had been married long enough that she could also claim the blue box as her own. Enough, anyway, for a Time Lord who was stuck god only knew where.

_Fine, be delusional. Come get me._

She was very proud of herself for what she did next. She typed out a single word reply, hit send, then immediately slammed the laptop shut. She put it on the floor and climbed under the covers, where she was very comfortable as she forced herself to put it out of her mind.

In hindsight, she should have known that her resolve was going to be rather weak, but at that particular moment she had won the battle and she took that into her dreams.

_No._

_~0~0~0~_

The Doctor, so far, had done very well keeping the fact that he couldn't see to himself. He'd enlisted Nardole as his helper – who had protested, but only minimally – and his sonic sunglasses had proven to be quite the useful tool. As he looked out across the lecture hall, he couldn't actually see anything at all, but the glasses projected the readings into his mind. The hall was full, as it was normally, which was always a bonus because even though he could speak to an empty room he didn't particularly want to. He quickly looked for both Bill and Danni, who were sat on opposite sides of the room. Danni was surrounded by the gaggle of students she had picked up.

How no one had figured out his ruse was baffling, he thought to himself as he walked into the corner of the lectern. Perhaps he was just clumsier that he thought he was.

He still had absolutely no idea if he could ever fix his eyesight. It wasn't like there were hospitals that specialised in healing Time Lords, and he wasn't sure if using regeneration energy was the best course of action. Part of him didn't want to use it because Danni didn't know and he didn't want to use up regeneration energy unless he absolutely had to. The other was scared to try in case it didn't work.

His sonic sunglasses were incredibly clever – of course they were, he'd made them – and when he'd finished his lecture, he looked over at her. They highlighted any and all information he may need to know about any person around him, but for his wife they just let him know she was there. He knew she'd notice if he didn't look to her after the lecture, and by the way she seemed to be moving he'd managed to convince her yet again.

Ultimately, he didn't know what to do. Nardole had been pressuring him to tell his wife, but he always agreed when the Doctor argued against it. He didn't like lying to her, but he had to keep her safe. He had to keep everyone safe.

Sometimes being him was so tiring.

She waited until all of the students had gone, including her friends, before approaching him. "Interesting lecture," she told him. "I thought you were going to actually talk about physics today?"

He frowned. "I did, didn't i?" he asked.

"No, sweetie. The everchanging perspective of one's self isn't physics related."

"Ah," he replied, remembering how he had managed to fall onto that tangent. "I'll have to try harder next time."

"Don't, it was really interesting," she replied. "Kyle's invited me 'round to their house. Apparently they've got some sort of Mario Kart tournament going on. He wants me on his team cause they're a man down."

"More fool him," the Doctor muttered and she shot him a look that he didn't see. "So I shan't be seeing you this evening, either?"

"Sorry, I know I've been a bit busy. Tomorrow night I'm all yours, I promise." He also didn't see her glance behind her to make sure the coast was clear before kissing his cheek. "Give me a call if you need me."

He caught her hand. "Always," he purred and she squeezed his hand before letting it go.

"Love you."

She said it as she walked out, which was yet another step in proving just how comfortable she was becoming. Even though Kyle and his little group of friends were taking more of her time, he was sure that having some friends outside of him and Nardole was really helping her feel better equipped to handle life.

He stood at the lecture until the lights turned off, just pondering his next move in his life, when the door opened. He glanced up and his glasses immediately registers many, many people entering, lining up at the top of the lecture hall.

"Hello?" he asked, rather concerned. "Hello? Who's there?"

All of the people stopped, except one, who walked down the stairs towards him. "Good evening, Doctor. We have come here today direct from the Vatican."

He didn't expect that. "Oh, right, that's nice," he replied. "Well, if you've got a collecting tin, I'm sure I can find something." He reached into his pocket as the door to the side of the lecture hall opened. "Er, leaky roof, is it?"

Nardole had just been coming to fetch the Doctor, but when he saw all the people and how they were dressed, he knew he had to intervene before the Doctor accidently insulted someone. "Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no. Stop talking. Stop now," he said as he rushed down the stairs to the Doctor's side. "Please, just listen to them. It sounds important."

The Cardinal stepped closer. "We have come here to see you because your services and wisdom are recommended at the highest level." He held out an old scroll and Nardole, knowing the Doctor wouldn't be able to see it, moved forward and took it. He held it open as if he was showing the Doctor. "As you can see, this is the personal recommendation of Pope Benedict IX. In 1045."

The Doctor smiled fondly, falling back into a memory for a moment. "Pope Benedict. Lovely girl. What a night. I knew she was trouble, but she wove a spell with her castanets."

"Doctor!" the Cardinal interrupted, becoming a little exasperated. "On behalf of every human soul in this world, of any creed, of any faith, with the utmost respect and in complete secrecy, His Holiness, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, requests most urgently, a personal audience."

"Well, if he's so keen to talk to me, why doesn't he just come here himself?" the Doctor asked as a man all in white started walking down the stairs to the lecture platform.

"He is here. He's standing right in front of us," Nardole muttered under his breath.

The Doctor shifted slightly, feeling like he was about to blow his secret and needing to get focus off his mistake. "Hello, uh, the Pope," he greeted awkwardly. "I'm sorry that I didn't recognise you there."

He paused, and then he frowned. "You don't do this," he declared. "The Pope doesn't zoom round the world in the Popemobile, surprising people." He leant forward, very intrigued and slightly concerned. "Why would you do that?"

After the Cardinal and the Pope shared a few words, the Pope replied with only one thing. "Extremis."

The Doctor waited for a moment, hoping for some more information other than a rather pompous way of saying the Pope was desperate which was why he was suddenly paying house calls. No one said anything, though, as the room fell into a solemn silence and it was Nardole who broke it, clearing his throat.

"Sir, perhaps we should move to your office?" he offered as a prompt. "Where we can discuss things more privately?"

The Doctor pointed in what he assumed was the right direction. "Yes, that is- that is a good idea," he agreed. "We just need to make a bit of a pitstop, then we can get down to- get down to business."

Nardole frowned but followed the Doctor as he made his way down from the platform. "Sir, where else could we possibly need to be?" he hissed.

"The Pope is here. He doesn't just drop by for tea and crumpets, does he? Something very big, and very interesting is happening. We are going to go crash a game of Mario Kart."

_~0~0~0~_

Danni, apparently, was rather good at Mario Kart. Or so Kyle had told her as they seemed to be winning pretty much every game that they played. After learning how to pilot the TARDIS, though, using such a small controller with limited controls didn't exactly seem too difficult. She was sure that with a little less music, and a little less booze, that they'd have been winning every match they played.

She was rather fond of the red shells, but she hated the blue ones. Those had bitten her in the arse more than she'd care to admit.

The doorbell rang whilst they were waiting for their next turn as teammates. There were quite a lot of people at the house party, but their little group seemed to have taken over a corner of the room and Danni was very happy not to interact with everyone else. She really enjoyed hanging around with the other students, but she only had the tolerance for so many people.

"It seems very unfair that she's on your team," Boyle pointed out. "She's super smart, of course she was going to be good at gaming as well."

"It's not my fault that you all paired off without me," Kyle protested. "Plus, she could have been absolutely awful."

"That's true," Danni interjected before taking a sip of her drink. "I mean, it's highly improbable I'm terrible at anything, but I haven't _tried_ everything yet, so there might be something out there." She frowned, thoughtful for a moment. "Am I doing it wrong?"

"Doing what wrong?" Sarah asked.

"Being a person," she replied. Everyone laughed, but it had been a serious question and she wondered if that was how the Doctor felt when he thought he'd done something right but everyone looked at him like he had two heads.

Kyle wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she stiffened slightly at the surprise contact. "Nah, you're good," he promised.

"How's your husband?" Sarah spoke up in a pointed voice that Danni didn't quite understand, but also made Kyle remove his arm so she wasn't going to question it. She still wasn't quite comfortable with touches that came from nowhere, no matter how innocent they were.

"Fine. Working," she replied shortly in the hopes that it would force them to change the conversation.

"When are you going to bring him?" Kyle asked. "I'm starting to think he doesn't exist."

"He does. This just isn't his type of thing."

"You don't think he's going to like us," Kyle teased.

"Well, no, he probably won't. But he doesn't like most people, so that's not anything to do with you lot," she reasoned. "He's just- I don't know, not the going out to get pissed kind of guy."

Plus, there was the whole 'he's a teacher and we're undercover aliens' thing that she was desperately trying to keep under wraps, but the Doctor really wasn't going to appreciate a bunch of students playing Mario Kart.

The music was turned down slightly and Danni was rather grateful that the conversation was ended before she had to start pulling excuses out of her arse. "Hey, is there a Danni here?" someone shouted.

Immediately the group of ten or so people, minus Danni, all raised their hands above the heads to indicate that she was there. She wasn't particularly happy that they'd pointed her out considering how she would rather not have been highlighted, so instead she just craned her neck to try and see who would visit her at a party.

Was it Bill? She was also a student, after all, and would be hanging around with people of similar age. Was she about to have another awkward encounter with her husband's student?

Apparently, not, as the short, dumpy, figure of Nardole rushed over. "_Nardole!"_ everyone else cheered happily, as they all apparently had taken to Nardole rather well. Danni wasn't as enthusiastic at seeing him.

Nardole offered them all a little, awkward wave. "Hello."

"I didn't know you were coming," Kyle said. "You should have said, I woulda found someone else to be on your team."

"We can always share him," Boyle offered. "Give Miss Perfect Score here a rest."

"Ah, no, no, I'm not here to race," Nardole interrupted and the whole group groaned. "Danielle, I just-I need to speak to you."

She pushed herself off her chair and followed him outside. Immediately her cool exterior fell. "What are you doing here?" she hissed. "What's wrong? Is it Missy?"

"No, she's fine, she's still in the vault," he reassured her and she felt an immediate sense of relief. It was never good when Nardole appeared unannounced like he had done.

"Is it the Doctor, then?"

"Sort of. He's asked me to come get you." He nodded towards the other end of the street, where the TARDIS was parked. "Something's happened he thought you might… How drunk are you, exactly?"

"Not very. A little. I guess. Why?"

He grimaced. "Can you sober up any?" he asked. "Very quickly?"

She stared at him, eyes narrowing. "What's going on, Nardole?"

"Um, well…"

_~0~0~0~_

"The Pope!" Danni hissed under her breath. "Why the hell wouldn't you mention that it was the _bloody Pope?!_"

"The Doctor said you wouldn't come if I told you," Nardole replied quietly, shooting the Cardinal a queasy grin.

"Then you should have told me," she retorted. "I'm drunk, I shouldn't be here!"

Nardole had taken her to the Doctor's office, where the Doctor was ready and waiting at his desk, with the Pope sat on one side and a lot of men in religious clothing waiting outside the door. The Doctor had greeted her happily and she had slightly stumbled out of the doorway. It wasn't as if she had drunk absolutely loads of alchol, but for some reason even one drink now felt like twenty.

"I did ask," he reminded her.

"No, you didn't."

He most definitely did, but he just huffed to himself. She was just tipsy enough that she would start arguing in front of the Pope, and that definitely wouldn't go down well.

She wasn't even sure f she was supposed to be there. The Catholic Church wasn't exactly renown for its treatment of women, but she was still stood next to Nardole, who in turn was stood next to the Doctor.

"There is an ancient text buried deep in the most secret of the Vatican libraries," the Cardinal explained. "A text older than the Church itself. The language of this text is lost to us, but thanks to the work of an early Christian sect, the title has survived."

He pulled out a torn piece of parchment, with most of the wording missing, but the title was very prominently written at the top. He slid it over to the Doctor. "Okay, so what's the title?" the Doctor asked.

Danni looked down at him, confused and she opened her mouth to comment on the fact that he was being rather rude. Nardole, seeing that she was about to question the Doctor about something he couldn't see, leant forward and interrupted her before she could. "Oh, yes, I can see that it says Veritas." He brought it over and put it in front of the Doctor, so that it seemed like he was going to read it.

"Literally 'the Truth'," the Cardinal translated for them.

"Obviously, this sect, they understood the language," the Doctor prompted.

"It died with them. And all copies of their translation disappeared shortly after their mass suicide," he explained. "A few months ago, after many centuries of work, the Veritas was translated again."

"Right? And?" Nardole prompted.

"What did it say?" Danni asked.

"No-one knows," the Cardinal replied. "Everyone who worked on the translation, and everyone who subsequently read it is now dead." The Pope looked rather unsettled, like he didn't even like hearing about it. "Dead, Doctor, by their own hand."

"Mass suicides?" Danni asked, surprised at the dark turn that the conversation had taken. "All of them?"

"In every case. Beyond doubt."

"All bodies recovered?" the Doctor asked.

"Except one, but we naturally assumed that he had…"

"Assume nothing," the Doctor cut in. "Assumption makes an 'ass' out of you, and 'umption'. Cardinal, one of your translators is _missing_."

The Cardinal leant forward. "Doctor, those translators were devout. Believers. They took their own lives in the knowledge that suicide is a mortal sin. They read the Veritas and chose Hell."

"Dottore, will you read the Veritas?" the Pope begged.

"Absolutely not," Danni replied for him. "That's a stupid request."

"Danielle," Nardole hissed and she shot him a rather annoyed look.

"Oh, don't 'Danielle' me," she retorted. "Look; I may be a little tipsy, that's to be expected when you pull me from a party, but don't tell me I'm not saying anything irrational." She took the scrap of paper from the Doctor and slid it back. "You shouldn't be trying to translate this; you should be burning it."

The Doctor turned in his chair to face her. "Knowledge is power, remember?"

"Not that kind of power," she replied. "Everyone who had ever read this has died or gone missing. What makes you think you'll be any different?"

"Because," he started before reaching out and, thankfully, grabbing her hands. "Because this is something new, something no one else knows about. Something that no one else in the human race can read. Because I'm not human."

"You think that being an alien on this planet is going to save you? That's a small margin to bank on."

He nodded to the Cardinal and the Pope. "That's why they're here, my Pet. Because humanity has failed, so they've had to go further beyond."

She pressed her lips together and, even though the Doctor couldn't see, he knew what that silence meant. "You are not invisible just because you're not human," she stated.

"And we have both seen worse things than a killer piece of writing," he replied. He gave her hands a squeeze. "And I know you're just as interested as me."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are." He smiled. "You would have chucked the Pope and his friend out of here by now if you weren't."

She, again, didn't reply straight away and that was because she knew he was absolutely right. She blamed it on the booze she had been drinking prior to being brought home. But there is a killer piece of writing that was taking out religious men and she _had_ to know what that was about.

She sighed heavily. Why did it always have to be him? "Fine," she muttered. "But this is the _last_ time."

_~0~0~0~_

Bill stormed into the TARDIS, fury on her face as she ignored all of the other people who normally wouldn't be there. She looked up at the upper walkway, where the Doctor was walking around, being followed by a Cardinal. She knew she should have questioned it, she knew she should have said something about all the religious men, but she much too angry to be able to form more than one thought.

"Doctor! Here's a tip. When I'm on a date, when that rare and special thing happens in my real life, do not, do not under any circumstances, put the Pope in my bedroom!" she ranted loudly.

Nardole looked at Danni, who has a small smirk on her face. "You said she wasn't on a date," he pointed out.

Her smirk didn't drop. She'd seen how nicely both Bill and the woman she was with had been dressed, and how close they had been stood together when they had scanned Bill's flat to make sure she was actually there. She also knew that the Doctor and Nardole would have had absolutely no clue what that meant. The Doctor had been adamant that they brought Bill along, so leaving her to the date hadn't been an option. So, she'd seen the opportunity and took it. "I know what I said," she replied.

"Oh, you're being cheeky again."

She shrugged. "It happens."

"Okay. Now I know. Air cleared," the Doctor replied offhandedly to his student. He sat down at one of the desks, a small device in hand that Danielle could not know he'd found. "Nardole will explain what's going on."

Nardole, once again being given all of the jobs the Doctor didn't like, moved over to Bill. "Well, you know the Vatican?" he asked as the Cardinal approached the Doctor. "The one in Rome? In Italy?"

"I'm sure she knows where the Vatican is," Danni interrupted, slowly walking over to the pair. "She's not an idiot, Nardole." She looked at Bill, now looking slightly bored. "There's the text in the Vatican library that has caused every person who's read it to kill themselves. They want the Doctor to read it to find out what it says."

Bill looked alarmed, which Danni appreciated. "And he's actually going to do it?"

"You think he would turn that away?" she retorted. "He can't help himself."

"And you're okay with that?"

"If he wants to get himself killed, that's on his head," Danni replied. "He's always done stupid things for stupid reasons. At least he's got a better chance of surviving this than taking off his helmet in a vacuum."

As she walked away to the Doctor, Bill turned to Nardole. "What was that about?" she asked him. "I know I stuck my foot in it a few times, but that was uncalled for."

"Ah, she's a bit drunk, I wouldn't pay too much attention," he tried to dismiss.

"Nah, that's not it." She looked up at the pair. "I just don't get it. They seem so different. Is she in it for the money, or sommat?"

Nardole never really liked to get in the middle of disagreements, it had gotten him into a lot of trouble in the past and ultimately led to him losing his head in the first place. "She's just not very comfortable around people. I wouldn't take it too personally."

_~0~0~0~_

Danni looked down at the small, black box that the Doctor was holding. "What is that?" she asked. "I've never seen it before."

"It's a reading device," he explained, just as he had done for the Cardinal.

"Oh, will it read for you?" she asked. "So you don't have to actually read it yourself?"

"Something like that," he lied vaguely. He hated not being able to see her. A sign on a screen in his brain was definitely not enough. He reached out and took hold of her hand. "Danielle, when we get to the text…"

"You don't want me to read it unless I absolutely have to," she cut in. He frowned, looking up at her and she rolled her eyes. "Honestly, sometimes I think you think I'm stupid. If something goes wrong then both of us can't die. There's too much at stake and I, for better or worse, have that little bit of human in me that makes me infinitely more susceptible to whatever the writing says. One of us needs to stop the killer writing, and one of us has to stay alive to keep Missy under guard."

Of course, she was absolutely right on all accounts. Just because he thought Missy was doing better didn't mean that he thought she was ready to be free. And she _was_ part human, which was the only thing they currently had linking the dead and missing people together, and also one of the only things that made the Doctor the perfect test subject.

"I thought you might have protested more to being left in charge of the Vault," he admitted.

It wasn't like she was thrilled about it, but there were emails sat in her inbox that told her that a Missy contained in one place was so much better that a Master roaming the universe. "Well, one of us has to be responsible in this relationship, and evidently that is never going to be you," she teased.

She laughed in surprise as he pulled her down into his lap. "I should hope neither of us would be too responsible," he told her before putting the device in his jacket pocket.

"Doctor, sweetie, the Pope is still here," she reminded him. He jolted slightly in surprise as he also remembered that fact. He did take comfort in the fact, though, that he probably would have forgotten even if he had been able to see the man in white.

He didn't let her go, though, and she didn't make any move to stand up. Him holding her without a care of the people around them was just another reason that she was happy she'd stood up to Koschei and hadn't gone running after him.

"Uh, Sir, we've landed," Nardole called up to the pair.

"Ah, well, until next time," the Doctor murmured in her ear. "Perhaps when we're finished, we can find that room Benedict pointed us to."

Danni slipped off his lap. "Oh, what a night that was," she said. "We should drop back in, let them know we escaped."

"I'm sure they've realised by now."

_~0~0~0~_

The Pope was very eager to leave them to head into the Library with the Cardinal Angelo, who took the small group through a hidden passage guarded by Pope Benedict, who looked just as sassy as Danni remembered.

The Haereticum was absolutely stunning. The walls stretched upwards and outwards, lined with books containing everything that the Church didn't want to be public knowledge. Danni had the incredibly strong urge to grab everything she could see. What a waste it was to keep all the knowledge locked away.

"Very few know this place exists," Angelo explained. "The library of blasphemy; the Haereticum."

"Harry Potter!" Bill immediately said with a giant grin on her face.

"Language," the Doctor scolded.

"Please, stay close to me. The layout is designed to confuse the uninitiated," the Cardinal explained.

"Sort of like religion, really."

They followed the Cardinal down the middle aisle before turning off to the left. Danni ran her finger across the shelves. Surprisingly, only a small layer of dust stuck to her fingertip. "I wonder which poor bastard has to clean all this."

"Language," Nardole scolded. "We're in the Vatican."

"And?" she retorted. "Surely that's the best place to swear. No one else does, it's good to have a varied vocabulary."

"It's not very respectful, though, is it?"

"Well, to be honest, they've not been very respectful to me, have they? Or have you forgotten how to Catholic church has treated the females of this planet in the past?" She looked up at the ceiling. "I'll stop swearing when they give me more rights. I wonder how many of the Pope's goons are female? I think it'd be a good bet to say none at all. Benedict would be furious."

"I think Benedict would be furious that we were back in the Vatican and not being locked up," the Doctor said. She couldn't disagree with that, and so went back to running her fingers over the spines of the books. The Doctor, instead, turned to Bill. "Who was your date, then?"

"Er, Penny," Bill replied wondering if this was the best place to be asking about her personal life. "Uh, it's a long story."

Danni stuttered in her step as Angelo pulled a lever on the side of one of the many book cases to turn on the lights. She had heard that phrase many times over her life. People often said it before launching into mundane and long stories that explained incredibly uninteresting things, which she hated just because it was a waste of her time.

She had another experience with it, though; one that chilled her down to her core and that put her on edge more than she had been in a long time. She'd heard it from multiple people, even herself, when her brain couldn't be bothered to fill in the blanks to a situation. She'd heard it time and time again when she'd been put into a dream state so Missy could play with her.

'It's a long story' meant only one thing to Danielle; that everything around her was fake.

Nardole, instead of following on with the Doctor and Bill, also came to a stop when he realised that she wasn't moving anymore. "Danielle?" he asked, concerned, which caused the Doctor to stop and turn around. "What's wrong?"

She looked at Nardole, eyes wide and he frowned even further. He wasn't real, was he? Had he ever been real? Was the Vatican real? Was Bill and the university real?

Was the _Doctor_ real?

And, really, did she want anyone else to know that she'd worked it out? She needed time to think, to work out exactly when she'd appeared in the dream, and just how much of her life was a lie? Had she even escaped in the first place? Was that why the memory of Clara still tainted everything, even though she couldn't remember her friend at all? Because it was all fake? Because she hadn't lost them, but they were being supressed by someone else?

She swallowed hard. "I'm fine," she told them all in an attempt to stop everyone looking at her. "I- I thought I saw a rat."

The Doctor rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, but reached into his pocket all the same and pulled out a small bottle of hand sanitiser. He should have known that her dislike of getting dirty would flare up in the Vatican, and he was glad he actually was prepared for once. He chucked it to where his glasses told her she was standing and she caught it.

Angelo led them further into the Haerticum, to the very centre where a cage was sat, illuminated by the circular lights that hung from the ceiling. Just as they were about to reach it, they were all stopped in their steps by a blue light that shot from one of the many aisles of books.

"Doctor!" Nardole exclaimed, which brought the Doctor to a stop as well.

"What is that?" Bill asked.

"I don't know," Angelo replied. Danni didn't say a word. She had a horrid, dark, unsettling feeling that was twisting everything around her. She had her suspicions over what, exactly, it could be and she really didn't want it to be true.

The Doctor, who couldn't see anything at all and nothing was showing up on his glasses, turned to Nardole in the hopes he would say something to tell him what was going on. "Oh, look, it's a mysterious light, shining round a corner, approximately ten feet away," he explained.

"Hello? Who's there?" Angelo demanded before heading into the light and down the aisle. "This library is forbidden!"

"No, wait!" Bill cried as she followed him. At the end of the aisle was a wall, and on the wall was a bright oval of light with a silhouette in the middle.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Speak! Speak to me," he continued to demand as they all shielded their faces from the bright light.

The Doctor, who could now see the source of the light as well as the silhouette, tried to analyse who it might have been. However, the sonic sunglasses couldn't pick up any information about the person, which was more worrying than he would have liked to be.

"What's through there?" he asked the Cardinal. "What's through the door?"

"There is no door there," Angelo replied. "It's a wall."

The light flared up the disappeared, revealing the wall and not much else. Angelo rushed in front of the Doctor and to the wall, feeling across it. "Impossible. Quite impossible."

"Not really," Danni muttered.

Bill looked at her. "What do you mean?" she asked. "There was a hole in the wall, and now there isn't!"

"Doors are hidden in walls all of the time. If you're not able to see that, then it's very short sighted of you," she replied. Her hands were clenching by her sides as she tried to calm the urge to rush over and open the hidden door herself. Nothing good ever came from leaving Missy's little stories straight away. "Doctor?" she called to her husband. "The Veritas?"

He nodded. "Right, the Veritas," he agreed. "I have a feeling the answers might be there."

"I have to check if there is a breach in the wall. I'll unlock the cage in a moment."

The Doctor really didn't have time to wait for that, so he covertly unlocked the door himself. Bill and Nardole headed towards it, but he stopped next to his wife, who hadn't moved from the top of the aisle. "Danielle," he started lowly, placing a hand on her arm. "It's not what you think. This is all real, I promise."

She looked at his hand. She should have known that the Doctor would be able to work out exactly what she was worried about, and the thought should have calmed her down. Instead, all she could think about was how it would be very like Missy to plant a Doctor who was just caring enough that it would bring her guard down and take her suspicions away.

"I know," she lied. "It's all very interesting, isn't it?"

He gave her arm a squeeze, proud of how far she had come. "I fear it may become even more so soon enough."

"Oh, my God!" Bill exclaimed just as they reached the cage. A priest had appeared in the cage, looking incredibly worried, with a gun in his hand.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," he repeated, his voice breaking as he sounded like he was going to cry. "I sent it."

The Doctor frowned. "Sent what?"

"I sent it, yes," he replied.

"Sent what where?" he pressed. Instead, the priest ran out of the back of the cage and disappeared into the library. Bill made to run after him, but Nardole grabbed her arm before he could.

"No, stop. You'll just get lost."

"And he had a gun," Danni added. "That's not a fight you would win."

It sounded as if the words should be concern, but to Bill her tone sounded like she was saying it as an insult. The cage has a desk in it, with an ornate chair on one side. An old book declared itself to be the Veritas as it sat in the middle of the desk, as if it was on display, but Danni headed straight for the laptop that was sat next to it.

"Hey, there's Wi-Fi down here," Bill declared, sounding rather amused.

"Of course there's Wi-Fi," the Doctor replied as he felt his way to the chair. "It's a library."

Nardole quickly checked it over to make sure it was safe for him to sit in. "Reading chair with a safety belt?"

Danni glanced up from the screen to take a look. "Always promising, that," she muttered before turning back to the screen. "Four hours ago our runaway priest friend sent a copy of the translation to CERN."

"What's CERN?" Bill asked.

"The European Organization for Nuclear Research," the Doctor replied. "The largest particle physics laboratory on this planet. Did they reply?"

She nodded. "Just now, and just three words." She turned the laptop to face him. "_Pray for us_."

"When do a bunch of scientists ask for prayers?" Bill asked.

"The same time anyone does. When they're very, very afraid." The Doctor pulled the book towards him, feeling the letters carved into the front. This was definitely the right book, at least. "Particle physicists and priests. What could scare them both?"

Danni knew one thing that should scare everyone on the planet, but even she had her doubts that the contents of the book would contain anything about Missy. "Whatever in that book is really dangerous."

"He's been down here for a while, that guy. Whoever he is."

"At a guess, the missing translator," the Doctor replied as he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the book. Danni frowned; she hadn't seen it for a while, and had thought that he'd replaced it with the sunglasses.

Was that just another inaccuracy that Missy had put into her simulation? Was it purposeful, was she supposed to call it out? Was it a test?

"Oh, that's promising," Bill continued as if she had no idea about the battle that was going on in Danni's head.

"Promising?"

"Yeah, at least one person read the Veritas and lived."

As if on cue, as if someone was telling a story, there was a gunshot off in the direction that the priest had run to. Danni rolled her eyes. "You had to say it, didn't you?" she snapped before she turned to the Doctor. "I'm gonna go see if there's anything left of our friend. Don't do anything stupid."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he drawled as she walked out of the cage and in the direction of the sound. At that moment, with her reality crumbling around her, she was just glad to be getting as far away from him as possible. Nothing broke her hearts more than a fake Doctor.

"She seems particularly moody today," Bill commented as she watched the other woman walk away.

"Ah, that's because I interrupted her night out," the Doctor offered, even though he knew that wasn't the reason. He understood exactly what would be going through his wife's mind the moment they came across the door in the wall that shouldn't have been there. He knew where her mind head taken her to, because for a brief moment it had taken him there as well. However, he knew his grasp on reality was normally slightly better than hers and he had dismissed the idea that it was Missy behind everything, whereas she was most likely fixating on it. "A bit like you. Perhaps she was on a date."

Despite the gunshot, and the rather worrying situation where scientists were turning to religion for help, Bill's eyebrows shot up. "What, seriously?" she asked.

The Doctor was too engrossed in getting to read the book in front of him to see that she hadn't taken his comment as a joke. "Why don't you two go after her, make sure that they're both alright. He's about fifty feet that way." He pointed in the direction Danni had headed.

"Are you trying to get rid of us?" Bill accused.

"Why?"

"Because you're sending us into the dark, after a man with a gun," she pointed out.

"No, I'm sending you after my wife, who went into the dark after a man with a gun. Very different," he corrected. She wasn't wrong, though, so he pointed at Nardole. "Nardole, make sure you walk in front of Bill.

He didn't move and Bill knew exactly why. "Are you going to read this? Is that why you're sending us off?"

"I won't read this without you."

"Really, he won't," Nardole muttered before taking hold of Bill's arm again. "Come along, who knows what trouble she's getting herself into."

As they walked away with a promise from the Doctor that he wouldn't read the book without them, Bill turned to Nardole. "Was she really on a date? Did I stumble into, like, a moment between the two?"

Nardole sighed. "No, she wasn't on a date," he insisted. "This isn't a soap opera, Bill. They're just two ancient aliens who have spent thousands of years together travelling space and time. It's nothing strange."

"Yeah, not strange at all," she muttered before picking up her speed slightly. She would never understand the pair, she was sure of it. She'd seen Danni hanging around with a group of other students recently, was it really what the Doctor suggested? She didn't seem like the type of person to suddenly have friends.

Nardole walked in front of her. "You're to walk behind me now, like the Doctor said," he warned her.

"Yeah, totally not happening," she replied, shooting him a look. He turned to face her, removing his glasses and suddenly he looked more serious than she'd ever seen him.

"Okay, Bill. Miss Potts." He straightened slightly. "I am the only person you have ever met, or ever will meet, who is officially licensed to kick both Danielle's and the Doctor's arses. I will happily do the same to you, in the event that you do not align yourself with any instructions I have issued which I personally judge to be in the best interests of your safety and survival." He smiled, putting his glasses back on, ignoring the stunned look on her face. "Okay, Bill?"

She nodded. "Okay," she agreed.

"Good-o!" They continued on, Bill behind Nardole and suddenly looking at him in a new light.

"Nardole, are you secretly a badass?"

"Nothing secret about it, baby doll," he replied.

"I told you to stop calling people that. It's weird," Danni declared as she appeared out of one of the many aisles, gun in hand. Nardole jumped in surprise. "I wouldn't go down there. He's definitely dead." She looked down at the gun. "By his own hand."

"Well, that answers that question," he replied and she nodded.

"Not a single person who has read the Veritas in the Vatican has survived. I wonder how CERN are doing with it."

"Do you think they'll kill themselves as well?" Bill asked and Danni nodded.

"Most likely. We need to find out what that text says. I wonder if the Doctor has read it yet."

"He said he wouldn't until we got back."

Danni shot her a look. "And you believed him?"

Bill opened her mouth to protest when the same blue light from before illuminated them all.

"It's an opening, like we saw before," Bill breathed.

"Yeah, like a portal," Nardole agreed with a nod.

"Or a door," Danni added before walking straight towards it.

"Ma'am, wait!" Nardole exclaimed. "The Doctor won't be happy if you step into that!"

"I don't really care if he's happy or not," she snapped. "If he wants, let him complain. Maybe someone else will listen."

"You know, for his wife, you say some weird stuff," Bill pointed out. "You never seem to care."

"You're right, I really don't," she retorted. "I've walked through many doors that shouldn't exist in my time, and the truly bad ones always have one thing on the other side. Eventually they all lead to the same place and I am going to follow this until I find it."

She stepped in the light and Bill looked over her shoulder. "Should we follow, or go to the Doctor?"

Nardole was torn, but ultimately his vow gave him only one option. He nodded towards the portal and the pair followed her inside.


End file.
